


A Bishop Capture

by reminiscence



Series: A Multiplayer Chess Game [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Events, Finding Inner Strength, Gen, Plan B, Season Rewrite, even bad guys can get a second chance, ffn challenge: advent calendar 2016, ffn challenge: diversity writing challenge, ffn challenge: easter advent 2017, ffn challenge: three sided box challenge, girls are strong duelists too, word count: 25000-49999 words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2018-10-18 19:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10623453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reminiscence/pseuds/reminiscence
Summary: Roget needs to rewrite his plans after a humiliating but eye-opening defeat in the Synchro world. Sayaka needs a hint of Ruri's whereabouts (and Shun and Yuuto's, for that matter) and the courage to act on her resolve. And Masumi - Masumi needs to find the person responsible for the chaos in her hometown and give them a thrashing, LDS-Fusion style.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The role of characters is spread out quite a bit more in this series, so Yuuya isn't always the main character. This one's set after Queen's Promotion which is still in its infancy (since that's a far bigger project), but the main thing you need to know from it for this is Asuka was the responsible for causing Roget to lose his grip on the Synchro world, and the wormhole tossed him into the Xyz one and not Yuuya. And so Roget is quickly writing up his plan B. 
> 
> Written for:
> 
> Advent Calendar 2016, Day 13 - Three-Sided Box Challenge, super-nova  
> Three-Sided Box Challenge, super-nova: 6245 (give or take 100) words, 4 chapters, Masumi, Ruri, Sayaka, Jean-Micheal Roget  
> Diversity Writing Challenge, j2 - a multichapter with no more than 5 chapters  
> Easter Advent 2017: Explore Your World, Day 25 - 25-30k words total

She could become a Lancer. Yeah, right.

There was the slight problem in that no-one in LDS could sneeze without Akaba Reiji's permission and Akaba Reiji was trotting around another world with his current group of Lancers in tow. How _did_ he expect to add to those ranks if he'd allowed no time for it, if he hadn't given them the chance to prove they could?

And on the note of chances, why was Sawatari the only one who got a second shot? That egotistical talentless boy who changed his deck every time he lost as though it was the fault of the cards not his own he couldn't grow alongside them like a duellist should.

Or maybe he was still trying to find the right combination for him. Pretty rare with how long he'd been duelling, but possible. More likely though he was just showing off the fact that he _could_ afford to give his deck major redos and he could even buy himself back into a tournament that had seen him eliminated in the first round.

And that was the part that really smarted, because she'd been eliminated in the first round as well, under similar circumstances (because Hiiragi Yuuzu made it to the Battle Royale just like Sakaki Yuuya did) and she hadn't gotten a second chance. Nor had anyone else who'd lost to the top eight and she'd have to be both blind and deaf to not see how much Ryozanpaku School wanted Sakaki Yuuya's blood.

And Leo Duel School was blind if they couldn't grant the ambitions of their students because of a bureaucratic problem.

She already knew this crap.

…well, she'd never call Fusion crap. But the teacher who'd taken over for Professor Marco couldn't hold the candles to him and she was the top student in the course. Even if one threw in the foreign exchange student who'd disappeared into thin air so she couldn't prove her strength against him –

And that was convenient, because everyone took it as arrogance otherwise.

Never mind that she was the only one to win against You Show Duel School. Even if she had lost in the rematch.

And if she'd lost in the rematch, that meant the first defeat she'd dealt and her words had been good inspiration. So there was no reason to feel ashamed in that regard.

Yaiba's defeat, on the other hand… Well, one couldn't help but feel ashamed of a duel they couldn't put themselves forth in. Even Sakaki Yuuya, who'd come out on top. Even when he'd had the weight of his questionable innocence and the threatened closure of his father's school on top of him, he hadn't duelled like _that_.

But Sakaki Yuuya was a Lancer now. With Akaba Reiji. And irrelevant.

She sighed. Really, the only two options she had left to her were to defeat the invaders if they came (and she certainly didn't want them coming despite her thirst to prove herself) or catch the culprit of the attacks on Professor Marco and the other top officers of LDS…

And where had Hokuto disappeared to, on that note?

.

The silence seemed to echo, now.

One couldn't make the mistake of thinking it was over, thinking it was _safe_. The attacks had quietened down, surely, but that was because there were so few of them left now that they actually could hide effectively from the Academia soldiers.

But they had so little left to fight with, now. Kaito was around: a ghost flittering about and thinning Academia's numbers but they kept on sending reinforcements so it never really mattered. Shun and Yuuto had vanished and they had no way of knowing if they'd been carded or they'd wandered too far, looking for Ruri. And so many of their other comrades had been carded. The entire Spade branch. Most of Clover. Kaito's family. So many people they didn't even know because the world had seemed so big back then. Now it was just too small. She knew everyone: every man, woman and child. Every family. Every orphan. Every person on their own because their family was now cards and no-one dared put the word "orphan" on _them_ because that would be just too horrible, accepting it as irreversible –

But she only knew them because she cooked, and ladled food onto plates and bowls for them, and then washed the dishes afterwards. She only knew because she took care of their scrapes and bruises when they came in with them, and taught lessons to the children, while everyone else took their chances fighting and foraging outside. She was older! The children… Some of them were so young and yet they'd go out despite protests from their parents, from her – And then everybody would be so proud and so relieved when they'd come back and she'd wonder… She had a deck. She was a decent enough duellist (she averaged pretty highly in her class in Clover and even getting admission wasn't an easy feat). And the younger kids could learn to cook and run the infirmary and do cleaning and honestly that would help them out when they were older too and everything was the right way around again. They'd be contributing without being in unnecessary danger…

But wasn't she just trying to justify things for herself? That was also less people to forage things, and just one more to fight. If she even could fight.

_You ran away from Ruri, remember._

She did remember. She remembered and she wanted to do something about that but she couldn't, either. She wasn't like Yuuto and Shun, both so strong in their own way and even stronger together. She could defeat Ruri in a duel sometimes but she could never handle Shun. He was so strong he frightened her. She couldn't handle Kaito either, and she barely even knew Yuuto. Only through Ruri. Only watching her best friend fall in love and it was sweet in a sense but she was also somewhat far away from that part of Ruri's life –

And then Academia's invasion happened and Ruri disappeared and Yuuto disappeared and it really didn't matter anymore.

And she did these things anyone could do because she wanted an excuse not to go out there, and then she wanted an excuse to go out. She looked at all the faces now. They were never alone, here, at least. She could always justify staying, though. No-one else who stayed was a duellist. Even some of the ones who went out weren't duellists but at least they didn't go out all the time. She taught them. They learnt. They'd muddle through a duel but whether they could handle Academia was another story. Whether _she_ could handle Academia was a different story.

But still…

Maybe she was just going stir crazy leaving herself behind all the time and swimming with all those feelings of inferiority and guilt and attempting to convince herself otherwise.

.

Roget hid in a broken school and cursed his luck.

Academia were like rats in this dimension. Worse than Synchro. Worse than Fusion as well: more primitive – and he couldn't speak for Standard, having never been there before. This must be Xyz though. There was no way enough time had passed to turn Standard into _this_.

Not to mention the Professor's son was there. Surely that meant the world would put up a better fight than _this_.

Then again, Synchro had put up a good fight as well and they'd had nothing to fight with except themselves.

Damn that Asuka. And Jack Atlas. And Yuugo who'd appeared on the radar again after almost a year. And that girl the Professor wanted as his prize.

Well, those who lost the game didn't get a prize.

But he'd play again. Or so he'd thought when he'd set up his escape route but it might not work out that way, if Academia already ruled the place.

Xyz. It probably was them.

And he couldn't show himself right then, a disgrace and traitor to the Academia. Not without a better playing hand.

And it was going to be painfully difficult to get a good playing hand under these circumstances. Everyone here was Academia, except from the scrappy rats that weren't, who scurried about broken buildings and broken homes and tries to live and fight back.

As though their little fangs could do any damage when Academia had all but overrun them.

Then again, it had been the same with the Tops and the Commons. And he'd lost, in the end.

Maybe he could use whatever smattering of resistance remained to build his hand.

He would learn from his first failure, after all. And this time, he wouldn't have to contend with Tenjoin Asuka.

If he was lucky, he wouldn't have to contend with Edo Phoenix, either.

After all, this time he stood on the other side of the fence.

He brushed his long coat – then reconsidered.

If he was going to go to the rebels, he should probably look the part. Even if he wasn't in Academia colours, the state of the world showed only they could afford the luxury.

And it was a pity, too. He was rather fond of the coat.

But if he had to trade it in for a better hand, then so be it.

.

'Three more Obelisk Force sighted! They're near the You Show Duel School.'

Masumi blinked at that announcement. No-one moved.

Well, it wasn't LDS was what they were probably thinking. But didn't anyone remember that all their junior youth students had qualified for the semi-finals? Didn't anyone remember there was one teacher and three little kids left to defend it? Didn't _Yaiba_ remember?

He was staring at her. Yaiba did remember. The battleground they'd fought on. She'd won. He'd gotten a draw. But all of them fought to get stronger after that. And she did lose the next bout to Yuzu, on a far bigger stage… For her anyway. She didn't care about the school. And Yaiba had lost to a guy who was almost the complete opposite to the opponent he'd faced there that day.

But for the rest, You Show Duel School was just a little town school that couldn't hold a candle to LDS. Never mind that one student from LDS made it through to the semi-finals, and two from You Show plus someone who was practically a honorary You Show member were there. Never mind that LDS had only two wins to their name against a member of the You Show Duel School… And a tag team between Sakaki Yuuya and Dennis McField that she wasn't sure counted as a victory or defeat or neither of the two on the part of LDS. Point was, their record was better in the junior youth division, and considering Sakaki Yuuya was the founder of the pendulum summoning slowly being rolled out…

'We'll go,' she spoke up. Yaiba stood with her.

The instructor frowned at the pair of them. 'Groups of at least six,' he reminded.

But somehow they wound up on their own anyway. Hopefully the other four were drawing the missing Obelisk Force member away, because they were stuck in a tag duel too. Not bad odds, normally, but she couldn't shake a whisper suddenly in her head when she activated her duel disk.

_'You three… haven't seen combat.'_

And judging from the pinched look on Yaiba's face, he couldn't shake it either.

The voice sounded familiar too. Someone they'd been soundly defeated by, she recalled, though the duel itself was a fog in her mind. Them being her, Yaiba… And Hokuto too. The top three students in their respective summoning courses and they'd lost that badly against a single opponent?

Then their opponents grinned: wide and menacing, and they had to shake that ghost and that fog and focus on the duel, otherwise those grins promised some painful retribution.

Obelisk Force drew before she or Yaiba could. _Damn._ At least all he did was summon an Antique Gear Hound Dog that blasted them with 600 points of damage. Which was a show of strength and threat if there ever was one – dealing damage on the first turn when they couldn't do a thing about it and _why_ couldn't Wonder Quartet still be active to give them a little boost? – but the second turn saw Masumi's comeback plan foiled.

It started off well enough. As so sensing the urgency of the duel, she drew Gem-Knight Fusion from her deck and summoned out Gem Beast Lady Lapis Lazuli and, with her effect, dealt 1000 points of damage. _The damage they took last turn, and interest_ , she thought in satisfaction. And then 1400 more from the attack, or so the plan went…

It would've worked if it hadn't been for the face-down Fusion Dispersal. As though they'd been prepared to fight against a Fusion-user and she could only gape as her monster was ripped apart into Lapis and Lazuli, and the damage she'd dealt was returned to her. And then some.

The end of the second turn and they were down to nearly half their points already. 2200 facing 3000. Wasn't anything they couldn't come back from, but to be thwarted like that so easily…

Teeth grinding against each other, she played two face-downs. And hoped they'd get cocky, seeing an easy target in the 600 attack point Lazuli.

It didn't get any better. Their decks were made specifically to counter special summoned monsters and that's where the strengths in their decks – in most people's decks, really – lay.

And then there was a raptor gliding at them, burning with far too many attack points to withstand.

No, that was a memory.

And then the fog cleared.

'Kurosaki,' Yaiba muttered. He realised it too. Kurosaki used Raid Raptors. Kurosaki about who they knew next to nothing about, who'd talked about a burning home and hunted people and the crowd had laughed it off as "being in the act". But now there were hints to it being otherwise. More than hints. Big neon signs slapping them in the face. Kurosaki had stared down at them, saw their duelling full of pretty moves but lacking the hard edges of battle, and given them a crushing defeat.

And they couldn't exactly be mad at him, if that was all that stood between them and certain defeat in _this_ battle. They needed something – something that could turn it all around. Her fusion monster had been ripped apart. Yaiba's synchro monster had been blasted sky high, and now they had an almost completely empty field. Yaiba still had a face-down and the indestructible X-Saber Pashuul, at least. That was something. Getting nailed with its 1000 point cost per turn was not, leaving them with a measly 200 points.

And something had to be done about that Antique Gear Double Bite Hound Dog and its gear counters.

She blinked at what she'd drawn. _Or maybe not_. Except she could have used that card _last_ turn.

She must have been frowning something fierce, because Yaiba grinned. 'Trap Booster,' he said, activating the final face-down they shared and discarding a card for its cost. 'Have at it, Masumi.'

She grinned. This was more familiar. And just the way they rolled. 'I activate the trap: Fragment Fusion! I fuse Lapis and Lazuli from my graveyard. Return, Gem Knight Lady Lapis Lazuli!'

That was 1500 points of damage she happily dealt.

'Then, I banish Lazuli from my graveyard to add Gem-Knight Fusion to my hand.'

Yaiba's grin widened. Sure, it had failed twice in a pretty close space of time, but this was her signature and the pride of her class. 'I activate Gem-Knight Fusion to fuse Gem-Knight Roumaline with Lapis Lazuli on the field. Come forth, my second Lapis Lazuli!'

And that was another 1500 points of effect damage.

Game over, finally.

.

'Come with me,' Allen offered. Or asked.

It didn't matter. Being asked like that gave her a ready excuse, especially since Allen knew well enough not to wait for a verbal response from her.

In fact, if Allen had been around more often, he'd have dragged her off already. They were just spread too thin. It had been too long, and they'd been combing every inch of Heartland looking for their lost comrades… Or their cards.

They always found a card or two at least. Even now.

They tucked themselves away in a corner: a corner away from prying eyes. And that made Sayaka shiver because what was it that Allen wanted to say that he didn't want even the other Resistance members hearing.

But when he started, explaining where they'd searched and who and what they'd found and who they hadn't, it wasn't anything particularly personal at all. Yes, they lost more friends but they'd lost almost everyone already. Yes, they found a couple new mouths to feed, and some food to feed them with. Yes, they'd been able to fill the containers on the way back (since numerous people had disappeared filling them, they went in groups and all of them duellists, nowadays). Yes, they found a few people carded – no comrades, thankfully, but that was a small mercy in a world they'd already lost more than they could spare in. And that was from a purely materialistic perspective. They'd lost far more than they could bear but that wouldn't stop them from potentially losing it all.

And they searched for what they lost and hoped to find again, because that hope was the only rope they had.

And so Allen wrapped up with a 'still no sign of Shun or Yuuto, or Kaito.' As though he was trying to comfort her, he added: 'Shun and Yuuto might be together. As much as Shun tries to pull the lone bird act, Yuuto's pretty good at keeping an eye on him.'

Yuuto was good at keeping an eye on Ruri too but that didn't stop her from being kidnapped. Even if that was an unfair thought because she'd been the one who actually saw it, the only one who knew for sure she hadn't been carded straight away and yet she was still in Academia's hands… Everyone else was going off her word of mouth and who knew how many doubted her…

But it really didn't matter because they had no proof she was carded and that meant they could still find her alive and well. And the same went for their other missing comrades – in particular Shun, and Yuuto, and Kaito. Most of Clover couldn't say that. They had a hefty stack of cards to prove otherwise. But the first were innumerable people: people they recognised, people they didn't. The first wave that was indiscriminate and thinned the city before the duellists realised they could summon their monsters to be real as well and started to fight back.

She gripped the duel disk on her other arm. That had turned from something they enjoyed to a weapon they used to fight for their lives, and their hope.

'Sayaka.' Allen was looking at her. 'There's more, now.'

'A new wave?' Her eyes widened in horror. There was so few of them left, and they had so much manpower. 'They'll have enough to cover the entire place.'

'And yet they let us run about like we're trapped rats, picking us off one by one.' He snorted. 'They treat us like sport but they're afraid, even now. They think we've got what it takes to band together and fight back.'

'We do.' She released her hold on the duel disk and intertwined her fingers, instead. 'We're through the moment we don't.'

Subjectively speaking, of course, because it came down to hope rather than the objective fighting strength they housed. Because if they had a decent force, they could have stormed the Academia soldiers before they'd sent reinforcements and the balance of people and power had shifted too drastically against them.

'Sayaka.' Allen leaned back. 'There aren't many safe places left.'

'I know.' They knew, but they were being pushed further and further back, and thinned out all the while.

'It's not safe for you to be here alone. You… against all of those soldiers if they came.'

Ah, so he was worried about that. She relaxed a little – because, for her who wallowed in indecision, waiting for the inevitable was far less painful than taking the initiative. 'Everybody's learning,' she said quietly. 'And we've got plenty of cards to build well-balanced decks with.' Cards of duellists who'd fallen. Cards from stashes and shops they'd pawned. The Academia duellists were more concerned with people, at first. Didn't do anything to stop them getting weapons. Just staked those places out, and food, and other supplies. Basic necessities that they knew their prey would come seeking. And cards, at least, didn't run out.

'They're not getting any practice,' Allen frowned. 'Not against Academia soldiers. And we can't exactly take them out.'

'You can.' She'd thought about this, after all, and here was the perfect time. 'Like a buddy system. A more experience duelist with a least experienced one. We can't afford more than one experienced duellists here anyway. We're stretched too thin. And once they gain more experience, they can take others. As long as no-one goes alone.'

Like Shun. Like Kaito. Like Ruri.

But maybe Shun wasn't alone. Maybe Yuuto was with him.

Or maybe Yuuto had also gone off on his own.

'You've thought about this.'

'I have.'

Allen considered her. 'And could we rotate the experienced duellist, at least? You've had almost no experience against Academia yourself, you know. Even if you have trophies in your corner.'

'One trophy,' she corrected, and that was a sore point Allen didn't realise because she'd defeated Ruri for that trophy. And then let her be snatched when she'd stood an equal or better chance against her opponent without making use of that.

'More than me.' But Allen didn't shrug like he would have, once. He was giving her a considering look instead. Piercing things together from all the clues she'd scattered about. 'Tony's hurt his leg. He'll be stuck here for a few days so let's get you out.'

And then he was pulling her by the wrist.

'Now?' Sayaka exclaimed – though really, that was the most effective way to deal with indecision.

'Yes, now. We haven't got enough water to last through the night. Hasn't one of the kids come down with a fever.'

'Ah… that's right.'

Water. They were off to fetch water… from the same place Ruri had been snatched up from.

.

It was a surprise they'd gone through all that trouble and couldn't defend against effect damage. And once Masumi realised that was their weak point, she harped on it whenever she duelled. And her point average went up. Her win rates went up – and as callous as it was to admit, her carding rates went up as well. Because it was too dangerous to leave them uncarded. The escape of Shuiun Sora had proven that.

Even if it was stupid of them to not protect themselves against the very same thing they dished out themselves. Were they that arrogant? Did they think they were so special that only they would deal a healthy dose of it? Which might have been true because most decks weren't equipped to win a duel without a battle… But it wasn't impossible. It wasn't even improbable. Most duellists had at least one way of dealing effect damage. They didn't bother so much with prevention in Miami simply because the action magic cards covered that just fine. They had better cards to stack their deck with.

But someone who didn't have that fall-back – or even when they were duelling outside of an action field…

Or maybe it was simply more common here than in that Fusion Dimension those Obelisk soldiers had come from.

That didn't seem likely, though. The footage revealed to them had been heavily edited but they could see snippets of the truth around them as well. The fact that Akaba Reiji had picked the best of the best. The fact that the youth division had failed the selection process and vanished off the face of Miami City (except Sakuragi Yuu, who was simply hiding out in his one-bedroom apartment after Akaba Reiji had wrung him for information).

That was partially the reason why they weren't all too surprised with the Ancient Gear monsters. They were becoming more and more known the more they were played and one advantage any opponent had over them was diversity. If they restricted themselves to the same archetype, it would only be a matter of time before they had the entire archetype drawn out, and the ability to arm a wide array of decks against them. On the other hand, the Academia warriors were yet to pick up the art of the Action Duel, and then there were Pendulum Monsters being rolled out, and the wide variety of decks their opponents employed that contained cards that didn't all seem to exist in other worlds… Really, the people of Miami City had a huge advantage against their invaders.

And yet they couldn't stamp it out that quickly. Was it because their best were already stripped away by the vanguard? Or was it the lack of experience with this different kind of duelling, the need to win as soon as possible instead of the most statement-inducing of ways. And sure, that different between people, what statement they were aiming for. You Show Duel School was all about fun and smiles. LDS didn't have as much of a unified front as that. They all wanted to be the best but what the best wound up meaning differed. Like Sawatari, who wanted to be an Entertainment Duelist too. Like Akaba Reiji, who wanted the world to see his unshakable formation and struggle to crack through it and fail. And when he'd found that mode of summoning he didn't have – that Pendulum summon – he'd worked to adapt it as quickly as possible… and then spread it, so it was no longer the unfair advantage lording over them all.

Masumi wasn't exactly a fan of Strong Ishijima, but he could feel sorry for how the man had lost to a form of summoning no-one knew and therefore didn't know how to counter. That was pretty unfair. Totally different to somebody using a Ritual summon because people know it and it's been around for longer than any of the other summoning types (sans Normal and Advance summon). And she'd never seen Sakaki win a duel without pendulum summoning… And never saw him lose a duel either, despite his mediocre record. All that pointed toward Pendulum summoning being the reason behind his successes and once Pendulum summoning took off in earnest, they'd all be able to match that…

Still, the duel with Sawatari had been pretty fun.

And the duel with Kachidoki had been silencing.

There was something else there. Maybe that was why Akaba Reiji had jumped into the duel between their schools. Even if she couldn't see it. Even if Hokuto hadn't been able to see it. Maybe Nico Smiley had seen it too. Maybe that was why he'd chosen Sakaki Yuuya for the exhibition match in the first place and the hype of him being the son of the previous champion had been just the convenient cover.

But none of that mattered now. Sakaki wasn't here. Neither was Akaba Reiji. Nor Hokuto. It was up to people like them to defend their city, and the researchers at the Academia to find a way to turn Hokuto and Professor Marco and all those other carded people back to normal. And find a way to stop Academia coming through and increasing their numbers and if they ever gained a foothold, they'd overrun them within months.

Well, she wasn't about to let that happen and neither were a lot of other people. That's why LDS had expanded so much. So many more students, all determined to learn Pendulum summoning… and not only that, but the other summoning methods as well. They'd seen Sakaki Fusion summon and Xyz summon… and she wondered why he didn't Synchro summon, too. It was doable, and made easier by Pendulum as well… And honestly, Fusion was probably the one least advantaged by the advent of Pendumon. Fusion and Ritual. A lot of people underappreciated Ritual summoning.

But that wasn't her problem. She wasn't an all-rounder. She wasn't a Ritual summoner. She was a Fusion duellist, through and through. And Pendulum summoning would serve as a way to further that, for her. Just like Synchro summoning had been for Gongenzaka Noboru after the draw against Yaiba that had clobbered his pride.

Just like the duel against Hiiragi Yuzu had clobbered both their prides, in turn. Pendulum opened up far more possibilities than just summoning multiple monsters in a turn. Being able to Fusion summon in the middle of the battle phase was a gem, after all. And there'd be more. LDS would create them. She'd find them. Use them. Grow stronger with them and all the while not lose the foundation of her deck, of her duelling. Become a Lancer. Save the people that mattered to her. One day… become a warrior in the truest sense of the word, with the sword her father had guilded for her.

.

The Resistance kids didn't come back, but Academia were checking every inch and so Roget made his escape. And it was slow going, because the soldiers were all recent graduates and young and so much smaller than him, a fully grown adult. But he managed, because he didn't want to engage them. Not after his defence had been torn to shreds, and his plans, and his confidence as well. His drive was still there, but he was a lone king on the board and he needed to work his way up to a full board again.

The outside world really wasn't any better. There were less soldiers out at least, since they were busy combing the building for the most part, but the world was in shambles. Worse than the Commons. Too few people scurrying about like rats –

Oh, there were two. A boy and a girl, moving slowly and carefully… But not slowly and carefully enough.

He followed them. Straight to a water supply. Which was useful to know, but he could hardly believe Academia didn't have people guarding them. Or at least keeping an eye on them. Looking at how the boy always went first, how the girl always hung a step behind and seemed to fight the instinct to cling to the other's sleeve and her eyes went everywhere. Still, they didn't catch him.

Unless they did. The girl had frozen suddenly, before giving in to her earlier instinct and tugging at the other's sleeve and mouthing something. The boy stiffened too, turning to stare… Not at him. To his left. Three students in Orisis coats who stepped out with identical smirks. 'Looks like we've been spotted,' one said.

'Too bad. We usually leave the low profile kids alone. Need to leave some rats behind, right.' The second grinned.

'But we don't want a plague,' said the last. 'Since you spotted us, looks like you two are getting stomped.'

So they were planning on creating a Commons for their own sport, were they? Roget tucked himself further into his hiding place to watch. It was an opportunity that had fallen right into his lap.

The boy muttered something to the girl. She backed away a bit, then shook her head and set her chin. So it'd be a three on two duel, then. Though the girl was quaking in her boots so who knew if she'd count for anything at all.

Still, numbers weren't everything. And rats weren't as powerless as they appeared. He'd learnt that, from Asuka and from the Commons. She'd rallied up an impressive force, in the end.

He could do the same, or even better. But first, he had to know what he was working with – and worm himself in, as well. And that meant watching, and waiting, and emerging as the hope against despair: the classical hero scene to save his first two pawns.

.

Sayaka was relieved Allen was there with her. Allen was familiar. Rough around the edges, but one of her best friends and, really, the only one still here. Their friends from Clover were all gone. The only other one left was Kaito and even that was in doubt. He'd stormed off on his own after that terrific yelling match and they'd heard only snippets of his exploits still. Striking back where he'd been struck. Thinning a tide that only rose back up and he couldn't do it on his own. He'd never be able to do it on his own. But he wouldn't accept their help. They couldn't even find him to help… And would it even matter if they could? They were no army. Not now, anyway. Maybe not ever, even if every person they'd saved became a duellist that could earn the Championship title in their old, peaceful, word. That might be enough. Or it might not. They had to hope it would be, or else they'd find something else: something that'd help turn the tides in their favour because hope was the only thing that kept on going, kept them trying, kept them searching for the people still tucked away, and for food and water and supplies to keep them all alive until those seedlings of hope in their hearts bore fruit.

But reality was far more terrifying, and she fought to not give in to that terror. There was nobody but them now. They'd slipped past Academia soldiers already and now they were at the water tap but that was wrong. It was all wrong. No way they'd just leave the tap unguarded, no matter how many times they came to get water and left again. They just picked and chose their prey. They were here, somewhere. She could feel their eyes on him – or that was her own paranoia. Didn't matter. Allen was filling the containers. She had to make sure they couldn't sneak up on –

Oh crap. There they were. Two boys and a girl in red jackets. And they caught her staring, surprised looks morphing into smirks.

They'd been planning on letting them go, or so they said, but not anymore.

Allen snapped at her to get away, readying his duel disk. She backed away. One step. Two. _Wait!_

She couldn't just back away and leave him to face all three of them on his own. She'd done that already, and that regret was like an acid hole in her soul. 'I'll fight too.' Her voice quavered. Curse it. But Allen turned and saw the determination in her eyes, regardless of what else her body said, and he nodded. 'Then let's do this together.'

The three Academia soldiers readied their duel disks as well. Two on three. A Battle Royale. The tag team rule wasn't going to protect them.

'Go first,' Allen hissed, 'before one of them can.'

Going first would mean she'd have at least some defence out. Though Allen would have none.

'I – ' She quickly glanced at her cards. _Ooh, Little Fairy._ 'I summon Little Fairy.'

The three Academia soldiers stared at her – then burst into laughter. 'That weakling,' they chortled. And they were right. Little Fairy wasn't going to hold up to a beating, and she should've been on the defensive in the first turn anyway.

'Calm down,' Allen advised. 'You've got four other cards in your hand. Ignore them for now.' He shot a glare across the field, that didn't accomplish anything at all.

But his words did. Sayaka closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could do this. She was a decent duellist, and even if she'd rushed her first move, her deck had always supported her. There'd be something more she could do.

There was. 'I use Little Fairy's effect. I discard one card to raise it's level by one.'

They laughed harder. 'Destroying your hand now, little girl?' the other female mocked.

 _Ignore them,_ Allen had said. Sayaka took a deep breath. 'Monster Reborn! I return Dancing Fairies from the graveyard. Now level four Fairy Cheer Girl and Little Fairy, Overlay! Become the angel on the battlefield who smiles for the heroes that keep on fighting! Xyz Summon! Appear now! Rank Four: Fairy Cheer Girl.'

She breathed a sigh of relief when that was over. The three Academia soldiers in red coats were struck momentarily dumb. They weren't deal with a little 800 attack point monster. They were dealing with an Xyz monster more than twice as strong.

But then one of them snorted. '1900 attack points? What a weakling. We'll crush it soon enough.'

Sayaka shivered at that. They were right. One could normal summon a monster as strong as that. It wouldn't take much to beat it and she didn't have anything in her hand to help. She could stop their Fusion summons. Maybe. Probably. And she could protect Allen and her Fairy Cheer Girl for one turn, but that was it. It'd be up to Allen. 'Sorry, Allen.' She closed her eyes.

'Open your eyes,' he snapped at her. 'Concentrate. Don't cower. You're a good duellist Sayaka, but that's no good if you cower.'

_I know. I know, but…_

'One face down card, and I set Artifact Scythe as well as per it's effect. Turn end.'

Two different people slapped their foreheads at the opportunity that slipped away. But they were only human, and opportunities could always slip away from them. Opportunities they missed until they were pointed out. Opportunities that were only seen in hindsight.

But as long as there was another chance, they could try again. Try to reach again. Next time.

Next time.


	2. Chapter 2

That girl had made two rookie mistakes already. Reducing her hand to zero in the very first turn and not using her Fairy Cheer Girl’s ability to draw a card, especially in the situation she’d left herself in. Sure getting an Xyz monster out on the field on the very first turn was no small feat, but that was a waste if she couldn’t back up her move.

That depended on her face down now. Whether they’d been tossed down in desperation or there was some method to it. And what was that Artifact Deathscythe? How could she just set a monster in her magic/trap card zone like that? And what would it do while it was there?

The boy was likewise confused. ‘What were you thinking, Sayaka?’ he scolded. ‘Why didn’t you use Fairy Cheer Girl’s effect to draw a card?’

                ‘I – I forgot,’ the girl – Sayaka – stammered. ‘I just –‘ She buried her face in her hands.

                ‘It’s fine.’ The boy’s tone softened, though his face was still tense. ‘You’ve got a plan, right.’

She didn’t answer. Maybe she didn’t. The Academia soldiers certainly seemed to think she didn’t because they whipped out a monster straight away. Armoured Dog Cannon Boxer. And went to use it’s effect to special summon Armoured Dog Bull Copter from her hand.

Quick and easy and could bring out a powerful monster quite quickly. Bull Copter’s ability would add Fusion to her hand, and that would lead to Full Armoured Dog Bull Fortress. And that’s exactly what the girl meant to do.

Two thousand attack points, and that would be before it even used it’s effect.

But where was the monster? It was still Cannon Boxer alone on the field. Roget blinked. The girl in the Academia uniform blinked too.

                ‘Use your eyes,’ the Resistance boy snapped.

Sayaka gave a shy smile. ‘I used Artifact Ignition. It destroys one magic or trap card on the field, and I chose Artifact Deathscythe.’

And Roget thought for a moment that she would have targeted the more sensible choice: Fusion, when it appeared. Unless the girl couldn’t read that far ahead.

Except the girl wasn’t done. ‘Artifact Deathscythe’s monster effect. When it’s destroyed during my opponent’s turn, I can special summon it from my graveyard and you’re not allowed to special summon this turn. And I can also set one Artifact monster from my deck, thanks to Artifact Ignition.’

The Academia girl scowled, blind sighted. Now she had a 1900 attack point Xyz monster and a 2200 attack point level five Fairy to deal with and just her 1400 attack point Cannon Boxer to do it with. And at least two cards in her hand she couldn’t use this turn. Then she smiled and turned her head slightly. The pair from the Resistance missed her signal. ‘Turn end,’ she said, and the boy next to her was already drawing her card.

The Resistance girl might have made a clever manoeuvre, but that effect was over now. And the boy was grinding his teeth so hard it was a wonder, Roget thought, that he couldn’t hear them from his hiding place.

But now he’d seen what the Artifact monsters could do, and they were slippery little devils, even if they did have far too many holes to poke through. That depended on the girl though. Why was she even wasting her time with a monster like Fairy Cheer Girl? Didn’t she have a rank five monster in that deck of hers? The ability to draw cards was an advantage, but not with the amount of cards it cost to get that monster on the field. A silly reason like wanting a cheerleader on the sidelines – he could easily guess what type of girl she was. And even if her cards weren’t half bad and her strategy would’ve worked just fine if it wasn’t a Battle Royale, she had no experience in handling the situation she found herself in and was floundering because of it.

And absolutely nothing was stopping the Academia boy from summoning out his Bull Fortress, powering it up and then crushing the other boy who still didn’t have a single defence on his field.

And that was partially his fault, as well. Gallantry was all well and good and maybe it was smarter to have the inexperienced girl take the first move so she could get some semblance of a defence in but that didn’t mean he had to be the gentleman and let Academia take the next move. It also didn’t mean he couldn’t have worked out a signal with her beforehand (considering they’d already snuck past soldiers and should have been prepared for an eventual fight). And then to let the second Academia soldier have his turn before him. He sounded more experienced than the girl, but he hadn’t shown it yet.

And he was about to take 4000 points of damage.

Time to step in.

.

                ‘Due to the loss of many of LDS’s top duellists…’ Nishijima began on the podium. The rest of them were spread out in the rows of seats in the hall, like a common assembly. But it wasn’t a common assembly. It was a pseudo-graduation, a pseudo-promotion. Nobody who advanced would expect to stop studying. None of them would be professionals – which, in normal times, would have been a prerequisite they’d never waive. But necessary now. Younger people adapted better to new things. The older pros barely used Fusion, or Xyz, or Synchro, and adapting Pendulum would be just as difficult and rare. But the new generation… They’d be the ones who’d bring these new styles to the main stage and to the battlefield as well.

Nishijima continued his speech. Yaiba yawned, but he was still gripping his wooden sword with both hands. Masumi wasn’t paying that much attention either, but she was gripping the pendant she wore. Likewise, the students on either side of her were waiting anxiously for the speech to end and the names to be called. She thought she’d done well… But would that be good enough? It was the final stretch of waiting, and that was the hardest part.

                ‘… and Toudou Yaiba.’

Yaiba grinned, before frowning and glancing at Masumi, whose arms shook. _Why not me?_

                ‘Finally, the highest scoring student advancing to the Lancers and the valedictorian, Kotsu Masumi!’

 _Oh._ Her mind was numb for a moment, before that registered. She had passed, after all. And passed with the highest score to boot.

But how did that work? Didn’t she and Yaiba have the same score? ‘Must have been You Show,’ Yaiba whispered to her. ‘You did win that one, and all I did was draw.’

She snorted. Winning by half a point, then. And because of an opponent she lost to later on. And who knew if she’d have won the first time round if Hiiragi Yuzu had been properly focused instead of distracted by that Sakaki lookalike.

Yaiba poked her. ‘Hey, valedictorian. Get up there and do your speech.’

                ‘Speech?’ Now she had nerves for an entirely different reason. ‘I don’t have a speech!’

But there was an expectant silence. They were waiting for said speech, and she walked quickly up to the platform and accepted the microphone from Nishijima and thought about what she could say. What she should say. What she wanted to say.

It was going to be a haphazard speech, but really, they should have expected that when they didn’t give her any advanced warning. Especially after scaring her like that.

But that didn’t matter now. She was a Lancer. She’d made it. ‘I’m a Lancer,’ she began. ‘I’ve wanted to be a Lancer since the moment they were revealed at the championships but, even before that, I wanted to hunt down the enemy on the streets. That’s because people I know have been targeted. Have been hurt. Have been turned into cards. People from my school I only knew by name and reputation, at first. But then it was the teacher that taught me the core of my duelling. And then one of my best friends.’ And Hokuto would be pleased to hear himself referred to as such – though neither she nor Yaiba would do that to her face. ‘It turned out that the person who’d attacked all of them weren’t the same, and weren’t even on the same side… But before I knew it, I’d been pulled into a war. We’d all been pulled into a war.’

Kurosaki Shun was probably the one responsible for Professor Marco. And they hadn’t even gotten to know him once he joined LDS to forgive him on the basis of being friends. They weren’t by any description of the word. Kurosaki was just a duellist beyond the rest of them. Not in the Xyz courses though he could blow Hokuto out of the ballpark if he wanted to. On the fast track to becoming a pro, they heard whispers tell, but they rarely saw him. He was unmoving and cold and unforgiving in a duel, and aside from those and the opening ceremony where Sakaki and Hiiragi had stared openly at the odd scene they must have made (and now their incredulity made sense; they had known at least part of the tale and their memories hadn’t changed to cover it up).

Still, Kurosaki only did it because of Academia. Because of whoever had been snatched on him. That vicious cycle that never seemed to end until they cut the head off the king beast and Kurosaki seemed to think that was Akaba Leo. Sounded like Akaba Reiji thought so too. Which put Academia far ahead of the line.

                ‘And we’re not the only ones. People who strike back because they’ve been hurt, because they’ve lost things. That rippled down to us too. People who were blamed for things that had nothing to do with them.’ Sakaki Yuuya… And they really did owe him an apology, after Hiiragi explained the truth. But Sakaki and Hiiragi were gone now too. Fighting a battle somewhere else. On another battlefield. ‘And now that’s spread even further. Academia keeps on popping up on our streets and we’ve driven them back but we lose more and more people doing that. One side will run out of people soon enough and we don’t want that to be us. _We’re_ the ones who want the people we’ve lost back, and LDS is the ones working to make that a reality.’

She was really running her mouth, wasn’t she? Well, that was what happened with no preparation. She took a deep calming breath, then continued. ‘I want to be a Lancer because I want to fight this head on. And now I am and I’m _gonna_ fight this head on. I lost in the first round of the Junior Youth Championships. I’m still here and I’m proud to say I’ve worked hard and haven’t lost since. I did it. Anyone can do it if they want to badly enough and they try.’

Silence echoed a moment before the applause. ‘Where’s the hidden script?’ Yaiba mouth at her. Masumi rolled her eyes… but she was grateful. She’d made it through. She was a Lancer now: a fighter recognised for her fighting and now she could do more than just run where the bells sounded in groups of six that hardly ever showed up. They trusted her. She trusted herself. She’d gotten stronger and here was the proof. They’d stop chipping away at the loose ends and start cutting into the root of the problem. That was what Akaba Reiji had planned, after all. Why he’d left. But he couldn’t be everywhere. They were other places in the four dimensions that could bring them closer to the ultimate goal of cutting off Academia’s head. Fusion itself, but not until the Lancers united under one banner: an army instead of just a punitive force.

But for now, they were another punitive force. And there’d probably been a lot of discussion higher than them about whether it was important to keep the bulk of their strength here if Academia attacked in earnest or to send them to the Synchro and Xyz.

Well, the original Lancers were in Synchro and that answered the first question.

And Academia’s strikes were costly but, for the time being, manageable. Once the higher ups cracked the code of the carded, Academia would find the tide against them. And if they lost what they’d hoarded up as well, they’d be screwed. It was the ideal. It was what they were heading towards. And if the higher ups still believed in it...

                ‘They’ll be taking up positions on the front line to drive off the invaders,’ Nishijima announced. ‘So we can continue to reduce our casualties and start pushing back and regain the ground we’ve lost.’ Some duel schools, not as famous as LDS or Ryozanpaku School or even You Show Duel School. Some small shops (but not the big plaza in the centre of town. And other small places that they could do without, but were part of Miami City nonetheless. Academia couldn’t manage big jabs yet, so they settled for small ones and set up camp, knowing full well the people of Miami city had more important places that couldn’t be left without protection. Sending out feelers and sending duellists scurrying there… It just gave them more time to set up behind the scenes.

                ‘Too bad we’re not launching an all-out attack,’ Yaiba grumbled, once Masumi had taken her seat beside him again. ‘Guess we should wait for Hokuto before doing that, right?’

                ‘Guess we should.’ The carded deserved their chance for vengeance too, and they’d enable them.

.

                ‘Intrusion penalty: 2000 points.’

They all spun around, except the Resistance boy who’d on a knee after having lost all his points. The man who’d interrupted was tall and in dress pants and shirt that didn’t fit the image of the Resistance at all. So he must be Academia. Except he wasn’t in their uniform and the Academia people stared as blankly as the Resistance pair.

The man shot a smile towards the pair, and then turned to the Academia members.

They’re too slow to stop him drawing a card and starting his turn. Too dumbstruck to card the Resistance member they’ve so cowardly taken out, as well.

Sayaka is unmistakingly relieved – and so horribly guilty, because if only she hadn’t messed up her own turn…

‘I summon Puppet Pawn.’

It was cute, Sayaka thought. Level 3. 800 attack points. 1200 defence points. Cute, but no way was it going to stand up to a 4000 attack point fusion monster.

‘I’ll then sacrifice Puppet Pawn through the magic card Promotion to special summon Puppet Queen from my hand.’

…and that was one of the fastest promotions she’d ever seen in a game involving chess. Even if chess really wasn’t her forte… Or really anyone’s that she knew well.

That didn’t matter. 2200 attack points were quite a bit more powerful than 800. But still not enough. Still nowhere near enough.

‘Next, I activate Pawn Exchange. By removing a monster with “Pawn” in its name from my graveyard, I can summon another monster with “Pawn” in its name from my deck. I select Hell Pawn Daemon.’

Hell Pawn Daemon was nowhere near as cute as its Earth-based counterpart. In fact, it was downright creepy – and none of them knew which side the man summoning them was on quite yet.                                              

‘I equip Axe of Despair to Hell Pawn Daemon.’

Now the queen and the pawn had the same attack strength. How strange. How disconcerting, really.

‘And my last card is this.’ He flipped it, so Sayaka could only make out the green of another magic card. But the Academia students gasped in horror.

‘Equipment magic card: Falling Down. Since I have a Daemon monster on my field, I can take control of an opponent’s monster.’

And he pointed at Bull Fortress.

Sayaka’s knees almost caved with relief. He was helping them. For whatever reason, he was helping them. _Thank goodness._

Four thousand points of damage to the guy who hadn’t gone yet. 4400 to the girl who’d gone after Sayaka. That only left the boy who’d summoned Bull Fortress in the first place.

‘Your turn,’ said the man, nodding to her and standing back.

Her target was the 4000 life point Academia soldier in red. She took a deep breath. _Right_. She could do that. That was easy, even, with Fairy Cheer Girl and Artifact Deathscythe already on her field. They totalled 4100 attack points together.

She considered the rest of the field for just a moment. There were no face down cards. No hidden traps.

                ‘Fairy Cheer Girl! Artifact Deathscythe! Direct attack!’

It was over. They were safe. Almost.

Her hand shook on her duel disk. She had to catch them, before those duellists got away to change any more cards. She had to but now the three looked terrified, on their hands and knees and staring at two children they’d thought would be easy to beat and an adult who’d come out of nowhere to save them. Her hand shook because she’d never had a duel like this, never _won_ a duel like this. The last duel she won, she’d given Ruri her Little Fairy card – and Shun had slapped it out of her hands and handed it back. Nothing like this.

Allen crawled to his feet but he’d lost the duel. His duel disk was locked.

The man stepped forward again. Three flashes of light and the Academia soldiers were sealed into cards.

‘You,’ he sighed, turning back to Sayaka, ‘aren’t ready to be fighting a war.’ Then to Allen. ‘And neither are you, really. Letting those Academia soldiers ahead of you in the queue? I can understand you being the gentleman for your friend here, but that’s no reason to let Academia get a strike in before you.’

                ‘I realise that,’ Allen snapped, flushing red because it’s the truth. He knew he’d been too slow. ‘I was – ‘ He shook his head. ‘I was just distracted.’

                ‘A moment’s distraction in a war can cost someone their life,’ the man scolded. ‘You’re lucky I was nearby.’

                ‘And who _are_ you? Allen shot back. ‘Because we know every duellist in the Resistance and you’re not one of them. And no-one from this place dresses as well as _that_.’

                ‘…Jean,’ said the man, after a pause. ‘And I’m from another dimension. Not Fusion. I’m… well, I suppose you could say I’m lost.’

Sayaka pulled on Allen’s elbow, before he could continue his suspicions. ‘You know a lot,’ she observed. ‘About Academia, and the Fusion Dimension…’ As far as they knew, no-one outside the Academia members and the Resistance knew about the existence of dimensions other than their own.

                ‘My world is under attack too.’ Emotions danced across his face, at odds with the nonchalant shrug. ‘Honestly, I think only Fusion is safe, and that’s only before someone gets the force to take the war back to them.’ He looked back at the taps. ‘Granted, I hadn’t expected to leave one battlefield and wind up on a new one.’

                ‘And how did you wind up here?’ Allen’s tone was a little tamer now, a little more sympathising. He could understand a world torn apart by war. He lived in one himself.

                ‘Something blew up,’ shrugged Jean vaguely. ‘Couldn’t tell you more than that. Wound up in a school here crawling with Academia soldiers and there were far too many to take on at once.’ His eyes dart around uncomfortably. ‘We’re still exposed like this. Anywhere better?’

Sayaka and Allen look at each other. ‘Well, you did save us,’ Allen said finally. ‘The least we could do is take you back to our shelter.’

.

They didn’t know where the mole was as of yet: within the public, or within the Lancers, but better to keep it out of the ears of the public either way.

Masumi had to admit that was a clever bit of misdirection, splitting the new graduating Lancers. There’d be enough of them to showcase themselves and the records for the rest could be forged.

What she wasn’t happy about was being taken _away_ from the front lines.

                ‘Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to stay?’ she asked. ‘You had me give a big speech. People will be expecting me.’

                ‘People will be expecting to see your face plastered all over the city,’ Nishijima countered, ‘but that does not necessarily mean _you_ need to be there. In fact, it’s safer you’re not. The more they search for you, the more they leave their backs open to others.’

She snorted. ‘So you’re turning me into an Akaba Leo. That’s a pretty bad insult you know, given the current climate.’

                ‘They’re your words,’ Nishijima shrugged.

_Damn. Can never get a raise out of him._

                ‘So what?’ Masumi fell back onto the couch. At least Akaba Reiji had good taste and good manners, even if Nishijima insisted on standing. Which was fair enough, probably. He couldn’t imagine himself in his boss’s chair and that was a good sign of loyalty, even if Akaba Reiji wasn’t around to see it. ‘I lead a force in the Xyz Dimension, teaming up with the resistance, protecting any cards they’ve managed to horde and hoarding more and thinning Academia numbers as best we can without taking unnecessary risks, teaching them all Pendulum summoning and maybe even regular duelling depending on their skills and waiting patiently while you crack the card code and revive everyone en masse? Sound about right?’

                ‘It’s a test of sorts, as well,’ Nishijima explained. ‘Your Fusion summoning skills are strong. Maybe not on par with the power levels of the Academia soldiers yet but you’ll keep on getting stronger. Your investigation skills and intuition are quite strong as well. After all, it was you who discovered Kurosaki Shun.’

                ‘So it’s okay for us to remember now?’ Masumi asked coolly. ‘That wasn’t very nice, sealing our memories.’

                ‘It was necessary,’ Nishijima replied. ‘The president needed his assistance, and his strength.’

                ‘Yeah, he was in a different league…’ She wondered: where they still in different leagues or had she closed the gap? ‘So I found Kurosaki Shun in the end. Didn’t help much.’

                ‘Oh, it helped a great deal.’ Nishijima looked like he knew more than he was telling, and as a spokesman he only knew what he was told. The Akabas made all the executive decisions after all. That was Akaba Himiki, in Akaba Reiji’s absence. ‘Regardless, you’ve shown promise and so we’re putting you in the field, where your skills can shine the most. We can make a poster girl of you without you here. But we’ve lost most of our agents. We need Lancers in Xyz and the president’s group will be busy enough convincing Synchro.’

                ‘Lancers doing _what_ exactly?’ Masumi asked dryly. ‘Since there won’t be an need to raise an army when returning the carded to normal should overwhelm Academia with numbers alone.’

                ‘Numbers, perhaps,’ Nishijima agreed, ‘but their morale will be a different story. And it’ll do no good if we don’t have access to those cards – or at least know where they are.’

                ‘So I find the cards, and make friends with the Resistance and keep them alive and kicking while Academia slowly chokes them to death,’ Masumi surmised. ‘Because it doesn’t sound like you expect me to make much of a dent – or are giving me enough to do it with.’

Nishijima pushed a bag across the desk to her. She opened it. Pendulum cards. The ones that had been scattered around in the Battle Royale. That didn’t fit into any one archetype but for any particular attribute, or card type. More versatile. Less special. A dime a dozen, some would say.

                ‘For the Resistance members?’ Masumi asked. ‘Tools for boosting morale and stopping them from being wiped out entirely?’

                ‘At this point, we can’t stop the news of Pendulum spreading,’ Nishijima sighed. ‘Sora Shuiuin… And the president suspects another spy within the Lancers or those who watched the Battle Royale. Or both. Too many people to control information that’s been made public. And now the Lancers are in Synchro and that’s another world where they can’t control what they reveal.’

                ‘So if we can’t stop it, we may as well encourage the people we do want to give an advantage to – or at least negate their disability, if Academia develops their own Pendulum cards.’

                ‘Exactly that.’

They fell silent, staring at the horde of Pendulum cards.

                ‘There’s also a data chip in there,’ Nishijima said finally. ‘Once you’ve made sure all the spies are weeded out – because the president has no doubt there are a few at least – then you can give this to a card designer and they can make archetype specific Pendulum cards, to aid them further.’

                ‘Weeding out spies on top of going on a treasure hunt and boosting morale.’ Masumi listed them off. ‘This job is getting more and more complicated – but you don’t need a good duellist. You need a good –‘

                ‘Covet agent. We know. But most of ours were taken out by Kurosaki, if you recall.’

                ‘Funny how he’s on our side now.’ Masumi frowned. ‘On top of that, we’re orchestrating a rescue for his world, after he called so much trouble in ours. He better behave now that he’s a Lancer.’

                ‘Oh, I’m sure the president can handle him. Him and Sakaki both.’

                ‘Sakaki?’ Masumi echoed. ‘Why does he need managing?’

                ‘Ah, I suppose you didn’t see.’ Nishijima fiddled around under the desk and turned on the screen. ‘You recall this duel, correct?’

                ‘Against Strong Ishijima? Of course. Who doesn’t?’

It was playing the first moment Sakaki Pendulum summoned.

                ‘Look at his eyes.’ Nishijima gestured.

Masumi squinted. ‘The pupils are a little constricted. So what?’

The scene changed, to Sakaki’s second round match against Kachidoki. And this time, the pupils were pinpoint and the irises glowing. Bright red if that wasn’t a camera trick. She’d felt the cold and silence sweep through the arena in the duel but she hadn’t seen that. Hadn’t noticed that at all.

Then a third duel, against three Academia members in the ruins of Wonder Quartet that hadn’t been broadcasted. And the eyes were red and pinpoint again.

And that dragon he summoned out. As if the Pendulum scale was made for it.

He’d done the same thing against Ishijima. Pendulum cards made to set the perfect field and let nothing his opponent threw through. There were holes, but no-one exploited them. It was pure luck and yet it all fell into place without fail. Cards made for the situation. A monster made for the situation and who wiped them all in a single shot.

She didn’t recall seeing that monster in the footage they revealed afterwards. An ace in the hole, perhaps, that wouldn’t do a bit of good if there was a spy amongst the Lancers but maybe that was the point.

                ‘Akaba Reiji,’ Masumi mused. ‘He’s sure set up a complicated board. Tell me something. Why was Sawatari the only one to get a bonus round?’

                ‘Sawatari was the only one to seek it out.’ Nishijima frowned. ‘I was not pleased with that myself, to be honest. He’s hardly what we look for in our elite forces.’

                ‘And yet I am.’ Well, she certainly wasn’t that impulsive. ‘I prefer to let my actions speak for me.’

                ‘Which is why you’re here. But someone with actions and no words are nothing more than mules.’

                ‘How sad,’ Masumi said dryly. ‘I didn’t realise you had a sense of humour, Nishijima-san.’

.

Roget followed behind Sayaka and Allen, walking so stooped he was sure his back would twinge in the morning. After all, he wasn’t young and small like them. But he’d earned at least a little of their trust and respect and that was all he needed, for the moment.

Sayaka, her voice too soft for this world, pointed out different things they went past and what they used to be. It was easy enough to imagine the once vibrant city that had stood there. Card shops within walking distance of each other. Schools dedicated to duelling and in friendly competition with each other. Big stages where duellists performed and that was one thing Fusion didn’t have. Duelling wasn’t a big display. It was a weapon.

Here, it was once their entertainment before it became the only way they could survive.

They tensed and fell quiet every time they saw someone in red, yellow or blue. They waited with baited breaths until they passed. Then continued their way. And Roget played close attention to his surrounds and the tour he was getting of them. The world was still new, after all, and knowledge was power. Knowledge and the cooperation of the people and Tenjoin Asuka had outmanoeuvred him on both. He’d ignored a potential well of information.

Not this time. Though it would be tricky to reach feelers into the Academia of this dimension, he couldn’t have done it himself regardless. Some opportunity would present itself, though. Not everyone was uniform in Academia and they crawled with students, with warriors. The Resistance was so much smaller, and closed, and seemingly powerless at first glance but the Commons had been too: taken for granted until they showed off their power once the stage and the way up were facilitated for them.

So he was going to give that a try here, and wait for other pieces to come by.

He was playing with a relatively empty board at the moment, but he’d fill it slowly up. And this time, he wouldn’t disregard any small corner of the board as he had before.

                ‘Jean.’ Sayaka was softly hailing him. ‘We’re here.’

Tucked away on the corner of the hill, one of the hideouts of the Resistance. Or maybe their only one.

.

‘Naturally, they’ll distrust you the moment they see you Fusion summoning,’ Nishijima said.

‘Naturally.’ Masumi traced her deck case. ‘My deck is far too dependent on it, though. You want me to argue the know thy enemy angle?’

Nishijima gestured at the case again. Masumi stared at it, saw nothing but pendulum cards, and removed the top layer. _Oh._ Fusion cards. Generic ones that could be used in different decks. Fusion monsters made for different types, different attributes… All of them Xyz support or requiring at least one Xyz monster as fusion material.

                ‘Of course, you’re facing a climate very much against Fusion summoning.’

Masumi ran her fingers over the stack of Fusion spell cards. ‘I love Fusion enough for that to not matter,’ she said, and her voice came out softer than she’d meant it to. ‘I’ll do this. Somehow.’

                ‘Kurosaki himself proved that Xyz isn’t enough to stand against Fusion.’ He played another clip. Kurosaki’s rematch with Shuiuin Sora, and he lost. ‘Fusion doesn’t stop adapting. Xyz has locked themselves in a box. Kurosaki was too stubborn to accept Pendulum at the time but he accepted it eventually.

Another clip. A duel against Academia soldiers. Tsukikage and Hiiragi and Sawatari and Gongenzaka and Kurosaki. Sawatari Pendulum summoning – with another new deck. Seriously? – then Gongenzaka taking those Pendulum cards and handing them to Kurosaki. Then Kurosaki using them to Pendulum summon his Raid Raptors. ‘Defeat is a valuable tool,’ Masumi hummed. ‘Then again, that depends on numbers. I don’t fancy beating an entire world full of people just to prove I can without carding them and Academia’s going to do worse.’

                ‘That’s up to you,’ Nishijima shrugged. ‘And whoever you take with you.’

                ‘Yaiba,’ Masumi said without hesitation. They’d worked together on most of those Academia soldiers. They’d worked together to track down Kurosaki too. And also… ‘And Hokuto.’

Nishijima blinked. ‘Shijima? But he’s –‘

                ‘I know he’s a card right now.’ Masumi forced herself to roll her eyes there. The two of them were her best friends after all. ‘Still, there’s no-one I’d trust and can depend on as much as the pair of them.’

                ‘Anyone else?’

She considered, but shook her head. ‘You know I don’t get along with my classmates. They think I have too sharp a tongue. Which makes it a wonder you’re sending me to do diplomatic work.’ She smirked.

                ‘It’s a lesson for your sharp tongue,’ he shrugged. ‘Or perhaps your results with Hiiragi speaks for itself, in this instance.’

Hiiragi who’d taken on Fusion summoning after that frustrating loss to her. Hiiragi who’d managed to defeat her with that Fusion monster.

                ‘If you are taking Toudou with you, then I suggest looking at the final layer.’

Masumi did so, and snorted. Synchro monsters and tuners and other supports. And like the Fusion ones, supporting Xyz or building from them. Allowing Xyz to stay as the cornerstone. The way they might accept it. The way she’d accept it too, when they tag duelled. And the way she considered Pendulum now. Not removing or fundamentally changing that core, but expanding on it. Making it more versatile, and stronger too.

                ‘Are we setting up LDS in the Xyz dimension? It sure looks like it.’

                ‘Well, the president is also a businessman,’ said Nishijima frankly.

Which was true, and said president also thought their generation held the future so sending the three of them wasn’t far out of the ballpark either.

.

Jean watched Sayaka as she worked with her students. It was a little uncomfortable, as though he knew far more than her and was assessing the breadth of her own knowledge – and maybe he did. She’d been a student herself before their world fell apart. She’d been a good student, perhaps, but a student nonetheless.

Good enough to teach the basics, she thought. But not good enough to handle Academia.

                ‘How much do you know about Fusion summoning,’ Jean asked her, once the new duellists were practicing amongst themselves.

                ‘Not a lot,’ Sayaka admitted. ‘It was almost unheard of here, until Academia invaded.’

                ‘How it’s done?’ Jean persisted. ‘Surely you’ve seen enough duels to know that much.’

                ‘The magic card Fusion.’ Sayaka dropped her voice, so they weren’t accidentally overheard. ‘And two or more monsters combine to summon a more powerful one from the Extra deck.’

                ‘The threadbare basics,’ Jean sighed. ‘There’s a little more to it than that. Have you looked at the Fusion monster cards?’

                ‘…no,’ she admitted. ‘Honestly, we’ve wanted nothing to do with them. We leave the cards and carded behind, taking back only our own.’

Jean raised an eyebrow. After all, she hadn’t managed to card her opponents.

 She flushed. ‘I haven’t gone out, much.’

                ‘So you play maid inside a refuge. Though it’s a good idea, to make sure everyone can duel.’ His green eyes swept over the others. ‘But if you don’t know your enemy, you can only do rudimentary things against them. Defences that are easy to predict. Like the way you sealed special summons for a turn. All they need to do was get the next turn as well as your move became useless. And they’ve trained to reach here. They know how to counter Xyz monsters of all kinds. In contrast, you can only cast a wide but flimsy net and hope to catch them.’

                ‘You’re right,’ Sayaka sighed. ‘But those cards took so much from us so fast we couldn’t bear to even _look._ Our terror and our grief have been tied to those cards, to those monsters. Willingly looking at them and holding them –‘

Jean’s hands twitched before he clasped them. ‘Regardless, your strategies are too limited, especially if the rest of the Resistance duels like the pair of you.’

                ‘Like Allen, maybe,’ Sayaka admitted. ‘Not like me. That was my first time out since Ruri…’ She clamped up immediately, though it didn’t really matter. Jean wouldn’t know who Ruri was, or why that topic –

                ‘Ruri?’ Jean asked.

                ‘That’s…’ Sayaka stared at her lap, tears pricking. ‘My best friend. Ruri. She was fetching water – before we began the buddy system – and she got stuck in a duel with someone from Academia. I was nearby. I saw the end of the duel but I didn’t interfere. And then he just picked her up and vanished and I still didn’t interfere!’

The tears began to fall in earnest then, and the others began to crowd her and pat her awkwardly. ‘Back to work,’ she demanded, but her voice was so watery no-one listened.

                ‘Back to work,’ Jean echoed, more forcefully. ‘I’ll take care of her.’

                ‘You made her cry,’ one protested.

Somehow, he sent them away despite that. ‘I used to be a teacher,’ Jean admitted. ‘And in our world, we use all sorts of summoning methods. I’m sorry for bringing up painful memories but I’m just trying to help. So you sit there and compose yourself, and I’ll go help these people, and we’ll talk more about this after, okay?’

She managed a nod and watched him flitter from one pair to the next, giving them instructions and watching them for a moment before moving on to the next. Sometimes, he’d take their deck into hand and go through them as though searching for something that was or wasn’t there. Or perhaps he was trying to see how those cards fit together. Sometimes he’d even take cards from the other decks and switch them.

Sayaka stood up and asked to look at one of the decks he’d changed and asked how it had been before, as well. And it did make sense. Those changes. And he was managing that far faster than she could. The familiarity of teaching, perhaps. Familiarity with lots of different decks and strategies.

Maybe he did have a point in that they had a resource they hadn’t used, and they should have been using it.

_Maybe…_

It’d still be hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note #4 - Roget can't use his Academia deck in front of the Resistance members, of course. That's not to say it won't show up, but the deck he used in this chapter is a mix of Archfiend (Daemon in Japanese) and Chess archetype. Both have cards representing chess pieces, and seeing as the chessboard made lots of visits in the anime... Why not?


	3. Chapter 3

'We're going to Xyz,' Yaiba repeated. 'Just the two of us.'

'Three of us,' Masumi corrected, taking out the card Nishijima had given her: the most special of them all.

'Hokuto!' Yaiba gaped at the card, then at her. 'You're crazy, you know.'

'I'm not the one who came up with the plan,' Masumi shrugged. 'And as much as I'd like to blame Nishijima for it, I don't think it was him, either. One of the Akabas, probably.'

'I guess so… It was the old lady who sent us to You Show in the first place. Though who knows if you'd have beaten Sakaki if the prez hadn't interrupted.'

Masumi shrugged as well. Honestly, she was less concerned was Sakaki as she was with Hiiragi Yuzu. They're the ones who'd formed a rivalry after all – if only it was because how she kept on getting in her way when searching for the culprit.

However she'd thought it was Sakaki in the first place…

Well, that didn't matter now.

'Anyway, are you in?'

Yaiba tapped his wooden sword on his thigh. 'Why not?' he shrugged. 'If I say no, you'll go just the two of you, won't you?'

'What idiot said we weren't friends?' Masumi returned.

Yaiba shrugged. 'Now, let me see those Synchro cards. I need to know what I'm expected to teach and I don't feel like explaining to my parents I'm off to another dimension right now.'

'Fair enough,' Masumi agreed, and the two of them poured over the case.

'Hey,' Yaiba said, after a moment. 'That sneak added cards just for us in here.'

He threw one to Masumi, who blinked at it. 'Gem Knight Pearl,' she read. 'An Xyz monster, huh.' She considered that. They were going to the Xyz Dimension after all. But… 'No monster effect.'

'Bad luck,' Yaiba said sympathetically. 'But the attack points are pretty decent and you don't need a Fusion card to summon it out.' Then he snorted. 'Hey, why are you complaining about lack of monster effects. Look at the amount of Gem Knights in your deck that are normal monsters!'

'There's a difference between normal monsters that are easy to summon out and ones that are more convoluted,' Masumi grumbled, 'but since we're going to Xyz, I guess I should…'

They continued sorting through the cards. 'Here's a Pendulum one,' Masumi said, after a moment. 'Gem-Protector.' She looked at the lime green stone it depicted. 'It's peridot.'

'You and your eye for jewellery.' Yaiba shook his head. 'I can't tell the difference between that and emerald. Is the effect any good?'

'Yep. Allows me to restore life points equal to effect damage inflicted once a turn.'

Yaiba whistled. 'Oh yeah, that's really handy against these guys.'

The Academia solders were going to find Masumi's damage-dealing combination had gotten an upgrade.

'Though I wish Nishijima had given those to us separately. Honestly, is a little organisation too much to ask for?'

'Or maybe you're right and he didn't arrange that at all.'

'Well, someone thinks it's funny to give us more work, anyway. And where are my cards – oh.'

Masumi leaned over. 'Well, don't keep me in suspense,' she demanded.

'X-Saber Hintersprite,' Yaiba read. 'Allows me to negate an effect targeting the graveyard. And if I discard it from my hand, it can negate an effect targeting the graveyard and destroy the card involved.' He put that down and picked up the next. 'And here's another: X-Saber Rutschige Schlange. Allows me to take a hundred points away from one of my opponent's monsters for every card in their graveyard each time I detach an overlay unit.' He looked at the summoning requirements. 'Three overlay units, huh.'

'So we've got an Xyz and a Pendulum monster each.' Masumi stared at the pile. 'The pendulum cards are kind of useless without a pair, so hopefully there's something else for us.'

'Here's one.' Yaiba held up his third card. 'X-Saber Pfund. Let's me add a monster with less than 500 attack points to my hand if I normal summon it. And when it's in the Pendulum scale I can special summon it to divert an attack. Cool.'

Masumi skimmed the remaining pile. They were almost through now and – 'Constellar Comas,' she breathed.

'For Hokuto?' Yaiba's chair almost toppled over before he grabbed its armrest.

And there turned out to be a few more for Hokuto, and for them as well.

'Must have been Akaba Reiji,' Masumi said finally, collapsing back on her seat. 'He prepared all this before the tournament's second round. Maybe before the tournament even began. That's why…'

'Maybe,' Yaiba agreed, staring at the small pile they'd made for Hokuto. 'Well, either way, we'll hang on to those for him.'

'Yeah. We will.'

.

It was a little too easy to fit amongst them, though Roget knew there were some things he had to tuck away in the meantime. Like Fusion. Like his Academia-style deck and it was lucky he kept a secondary one. Or a show of his might. The weak masses had very similar decks, after all. They only individualised them as they climbed up in ranks and stood apart from the crowd.

Asuka was strange even by those standards, employing a different mode of summoning entirely. And then later developing those to counter special summons, to counter Fusion monsters… A deck that could crush Academia soldiers who remained blinded by arrogance. And despite being in the Synchro dimension, she'd never specifically targeted  _them._

Rather, she'd turned her back on Fusion, the bread and butter of her home world.

The traitor.

He, at least, simply had his own plans. They weren't that fundamentally different from the goal of their world as a whole. He hadn't actively gone against it. But now… Asuka had won and he had lost and he needed to do something about that, even if that meant stealing – no,  _diverting_  resources for his own ends.

And Academia didn't seem particularly keen to utilise these resources, anyway. They squandered them instead. Picked them off little by little and dropped them into the huge furnace – and why not make use of them first? Especially now when he needed those resources.

Really, the Professor was too impatient. It was going to be a chore for anyone to get Synchro back, and that didn't even address the current climate of the Standard Dimension. He didn't know very much about it, but if Standard could afford to send soldiers to Synchro, then they must have left behind enough of a force at Standard strong enough to resist Academia despite their absence. Or they were fools. Or they believed the first strike would win.

That wasn't his problem. His job was to get Synchro back, and his pride.

And since he couldn't go back to Academia for that, which meant making use of the resources Academia was wasting. Namely, the Resistance.

And that led to him standing at the front of a classroom like the teacher he'd been before the Professor had changed everything.

It was surprisingly comfortable. He'd always enjoyed the lecturing component of teaching. For the most part, students listened, and once disciplinary actions had taken a turn for the more severe, the number of dissidents dropped dramatically. And with the power difference, it was quite easy to put them in their place, anyway.

The problem came with doing menial things like marking tests and papers.

But in an unofficial class, he was under no obligation to assign tests or papers. He could breeze in and out and whoever cared to would study more in their own time.

And they knew the basics. The girl – Sayaka – had taught those well at least. He went through them all and quizzed them and then moved onto their deck structures – and there was the first stumbling blocks.

They'd slapped cards together from whatever they'd managed to rescue, from extra stashes, card shops and their comrades' decks. They had the standard fourty to sixty card mix and all of them contained at least one Xyz monster… But not all of them were very well balanced. They contained at least one cohesive strategy, if one drew the right cards, but the chances of drawing those cards were pretty low and there wasn't much else that could be done in the meantime – or instead.

'Two things are crucial in a deck,' he began, 'a central focus, and versatility. They may seem to contradict themselves at first, but a central focus without versatility means you're dependent on drawing the exact right cards at the right time. The more cards involved, the lower the chance of that happening. In a standard fourty card deck, the chance of drawing a particular card is 1/40. To draw the second card in a two-card combination, it's 1/1560. To draw the third in a three-card combination, it's 1/59280. And the odds increase astronomically the more specific cards required for your combination. It's a one out of almost seventy-nine million chance of completing Exodia on the first turn, and if your other cards can't either assist in decreasing those odds, or defending you or setting another strategy into motion, then you're stuck.'

He grabbed the deck of someone in front and pulled five cards from it. 'What would you do with a hand like this?' Three copies of the Left Arm of the Forbidden One, and two copies of the Right Arm of the Forbidden One.

'Someone one of the spare arms, I guess,' the boy mumbled.

Roget drew a sixth card. The final copy of the Right Arm of the Forbidden One. 'Say your opponent summons a monster to defeat that. Isn't hard. And this is your next draw.'

'Summon another spare arm.' The boy's voice shrunk further.

'And your opponent summons another beat-stick monster. Doesn't even need any monster effects or power boosts. Even a 500 attack point monster would do, really, but for discussion purposes we'll go with a reasonable 1500 attack point monster. Or two of them. One takes out your defending arm. The other attacks you directly. You're got 2500 life points left and this is what you draw.' He drew a Left Leg of the Forbidden One. 'All you can really do is summon another spare arm and hope you get the other leg and the head quickly. But next turn, your opponent summons another monster with at least 500 attack points. Or they sacrifice one of their 1500 attack point monsters for something with at least 2500 attack points. You have only a 300 defence point monster defending your life points. And with three copies of each card in your deck, you're more likely to draw duplicates than the five unique cards you need to complete Exodia.'

The boy scattered his deck.

'Yes, you can summon Xyz monsters with them,' Roget continued, 'but to do that, you need at least two level one monsters on your field. Their attack and defence points aren't going to keep them on the field for long. You need ways to get multiples out in a turn if you're going to Xyz summon with your spare Exodia parts. Or cards that can get the unique parts into your hand faster. Don't have too many strategies, but also don't have too few. And if you can hide the fact that you're attempting to assemble Exodia, then all the better.'

'But how?' the boy blinked. 'I'll inevitably have to summon a part to the field.'

'Misdirection could work,' Roget shrugged. 'If you're proactive on the field, you can hide the hand you're building in the background.'

He handed the remaining cards back and stepped away from the desk. 'Just having more than fourty cards in your deck decreases the odds of getting the right ones. You may not have as much choice in cards as you once did, but you still have quite a variety. The key is picking the most effective combination of fourty cards to use. That includes cards that can be used in a variety of settings, cards that can increase draws or recycle cards from the graveyard – or banishment, if that's your strategy, cards that can protect from battle or damage or increase or decrease attack strength… Simple and common cards but they can form a solid backbone to build from, at least initially. But on the whole, your cards need to support your deck's core. If they don't, you're far too dependent on luck to win.'

And it seemed like too many of them had that problem.

'You.' This time, he pointed to a girl in the back. 'Your deck, please.'

The girl handed it over. Sixty cards. He had remembered that correctly. 'A Ghostrick deck.' One he'd never heard of before this. But it didn't take more than a cursory glance to realise the monsters didn't all work together. They may be part of the same archetype, but that doesn't meant they're all made to be in the same deck.'

'I told you we should have split them up,' hissed the boy sitting next to her. 'There's enough Ghostrick main monsters to pull off combination decks.'

'Well.' Roget crossed his arms. 'You seem to have an idea. Tell the rest of us.'

The boy blushed but complied. 'Level one monsters activate from the hand and trigger by destruction. Level two monsters relate to battle position control. Level three monsters all have flip effects and can flip themselves face-down once a turn. The Xyz monsters are level one fiends, level two spellcasters or level three zombies. Except for Spoiled Angel of the Ghostrick which is a level four fairy, but you can use rank up magic to get that out.'

 _Rank-up magic?_  Roget wondered, but he filed that away to find out about later. He didn't need to ask directly, because they had a multitude of cards he'd need to go through anyway to sort out the deck problems… And learn about all the different archetypes in this world. But for now…

'So Ghostricks can effectively be split into three different main decks, one focused around the level ones, one around the level twos and one around the level threes – with some specifics from the other levels acting as support. That can help in selecting which cards to keep and shrinking the deck down. Also, think about its weaknesses. Low attack and defence strength. Low levels. The requirement for the level threes to flip up and down and constantly change battle positions, and the abilities of the level twos to change battle positions. And while two decks from the same archetype would work better together than two completely unrelated decks, you are dealing with combinations of eighty cards as opposed to the fourty if you were on your own.'

He handed the deck back to the girl, who sat down looking slightly grumpy.

'The point is your deck needs to be able to hold up, no matter which order you draw your cards in, but it needs to have some central in it that makes it yours and is the focus of your deck creation and your strategies. The only way you'll find the right balance is by testing your deck. That's testing it theoretically, on paper, but also in duels. And I don't mean going out and duelling Academia soldiers,' he added, when the looks quickly changed into fear. 'You can practice against each other.'

Silence followed his spiel.

.

Masumi's father was busy at his workbench when she arrived home with the briefcase, though he still raised an eye at the odd sight. 'What's in there?' he asked.

'Cards,' Masumi sighed. 'Yaiba and I spent the whole afternoon sorting them out.' And as her father mulled over that statement, she took a deep breath. 'Dad, we've been assigned a mission.'

'Not here in Miami, by the sounds of it.' Her father put the necklace he'd been working on down and turned away from the bench. 'Where to?'

'Another dimension.' It was sufficiently vague, and really all that mattered from her father's point of view.

'Masumi…' he began, then he shook his head. 'No, I shouldn't worry. Your eyes are clear. You've already made up your mind.'

Masumi gave a half-smile. This was what she loved about her father. He never tried to talk her out of something she'd already decided. Instead, he did his best to support her.

'I would like you hear your reasons, though.'

She gave them: the selfish as well as the selfless ones. Getting stronger. Doing something meaningful. The weakness the Akabas wanted her to cover or transcend. And then Hokuto, and Professor Marco, and all the other people turned into cards that needed to be restored.

He listened to it all.

'Miami will be fine,' Masumi finished. 'Fusion would be stupid to launch a full-scale attack before they've got Synchro under their control, knowing that we're well aware they're coming and have already taken up arms against them. They're just trying to keep us busy. That's all. But they're leaving holes. Synchro, if they haven't been overwhelmed by this point. And Xyz, who they think are already finished except they're not.'

And they were going to make sure Xyz got their second wind… However two young duellists, one of them a fusion summoner, were going to pull  _that_  off.

'I see,' said her father, slowly. 'I'm glad you're going with Yaiba, at least. I'll still worry.'

'Hokuto is coming too,' Masumi admitted.

'Ah.' He didn't comment further. There was no need, when they both knew what manner Hokuto would be joining them in. 'The three of you have gotten close.'

Came with being the top students in their respective courses, presumably. Though it would have been nice to have the chance to duel against Halil to see how she'd stacked up against the international branches. Though Hiiragi Yuzu had beaten him too, so she could always attempt to defeat Yuzu again by proxy.

Assuming they met up again once this inter-dimensional mess was straightened out.

'Pity the girl from You Show already left,' her father mused. 'Yaiba had a rival from there too, did he not?'

'Yeah, I guess.' Gongenzaka probably did count as a rival, even if Yaiba didn't wind up getting his rematch in the tournament, thanks to that ninja. 'I don't think Hokuto would consider Sakaki Yuuya as his rival, though. Not when – ' She frowned then, because Yuuya  _had_  Xyz-summoned in the tournament, and summoned the monster that had defeated Sawatari to boot. Except they'd caught the culprit behind the LDS carding incidents, and that had been Kurosaki Shun.

Of course, with Sawatari not having been turned into a card, it was pretty obvious that was a separate incident, but Yuuya had denied it so ferociously. Yuzu hadn't been sure at first, but even she'd sorted herself out once she'd realised the truth. Or had her friendship simply convinced her of the wrong thing.

No, Masumi didn't think so. Truth shone in a person's eyes in a way illusions could never hope to match. Her father had long since taught her that.

'Your eyes are clouded,' her father frowned.

'I guess they are.' She didn't need to see them, with the way her thoughts swirled. 'A war is far more complicated than we'd originally thought, and it started before any of us were aware of it.'

'It caught us all unaware,' her father agreed. 'Are you worried, or confused?'

'Confused,' Masumi replied, after a pause. 'I mean, of course I'm worried but I'm sure the people here can hold their own and I've no intention of being a poster-girl behind the scenes and nothing else.' That was happening even without her input. 'I'm more confused about how things… well, happened. I mean, I told you about how Sawatari got attacked, right? And how old lady Akaba used that as a pretext to assimilate You Show Duel School because the guy who did it looked just like You Show's Sakaki Yuuya, except he Xyz summoned.'

'Yes, except Yuuya denied it and, as far as anyone knew, he couldn't Xyz summon anyway. And his school didn't teach it.'

'Right, exactly.' Masumi sat on one of the benches, sweeping a pile of papers to the ground. 'Except he pulled off an Xyz summon during the match against Kachidoki in the second round of the Junior Championships. Summoned out the same monster to boot.'

'Hmm,' said her father. 'This is Hiiragi's friend, yes?'

'Yep. She'd also seen the attacker, so she should have been able to definitively say whether it was him or not, but her eyes had been so cloudy in our duel. They cleared up later, though. And then I found the guy later on, but then he vanished when Sakaki showed up, looking for Yuzu –'

'Vanished,' her father mused. 'Not that you lost him.' He saw the distinction straight away. 'Carded people and others vanishing into thin air, and then these other dimensions… These things would have been science-fiction or fantasy, back in the day.'

'Probably.' Masumi snorted at that. 'It's real enough, now.'

'It's almost scary,' her father turned back to his workbench, 'how quickly the world and our perception of it changes. But anyone who could explain more is no longer here, correct?'

'Unless the old lady or Nishijima know anything, they're all part of Akaba Reiji's original Lancer squad.' That included Yuzu, Sakaki, Kurosaki… and, of course, Akaba Reiji himself. They might find their way to Xyz eventually, or they might bypass a broken world in favour of Fusion, knowing that later Lancers would go there. Or else, when they all came back…

Then again, if Kurosaki was from Xyz, then others in Xyz would also know him.

'Your eyes are clearing,' her father noted. 'You've found an idea.'

'I think I have,' Masumi hummed. 'Thanks, Dad.'

He threw a grin over his shoulder at her, before beckoning her over. 'Come, look. These jewels came from an archaeologist in Domino, and you know how far-travelled that sort are. Always promises to be interesting…'

.

'I'm confused,' Jean confessed to Sayaka, as they did the dishes together. 'Why don't the people here want to duel each other? There's no other way to make sure their decks are balanced enough to survive a duel without pure luck.'

'Fear,' Sayaka replied quietly. 'To us, now, duelling means stop running and fight, and fighting means the risk of losing. The ones who stay here full-time aren't great duellists. We've lost almost all our best, really. The few left-over fight on their own, mostly. They've lost too much to do otherwise.'

'I would think…' said Jean, looking around first to make sure there were no eavesdroppers. Sayaka seemed the forgiving sort, but someone like Allen would probably chew him out and then leave him for Academia to find – and he'd rather continue to stay under Academia's radar. '…that everyone here has lost something. Even the families luckily enough to escape together lost their homes, and you can't tell me many people managed to bring their day to day lives with them.'

'No, not really,' Sayaka agreed, after a pause. 'Honestly, I was a terrible cook before.'

'Oh?' Sayaka helped with most of the household chores around the base.

She laughed. 'Well, in a crowd this big, someone knows how to cook. And I took every opportunity to get out of duelling after…'

She stopped. He understood and let it go… for now. 'Still, that's dangerous. That means your fighting force gets weaker with each duellist you lose, and by more than just the number. If those of you who remained grew stronger from the experiences, then a small group could be just as powerful as the entirety of your citizens before.'

'It's easy to say, objectively,' sighed Sayaka, 'but a lot of us are afraid to duel, you know. Duelling is how we've lost people. Or not duelling. That's made some people want to act. That's made others not. And even if we do fight, some of us are held back.'

'Like you,' Jean surmised.

'Like me.' Sayaka's eyes shone with tears. 'I was one of Clover's top duellists, but you wouldn't know it, looking at me.'

 _No_ , thought Jean thoughtfully. He wouldn't have known it at all. But that told him, plain as day, what the problem was. 'Confidence.'

'Pardon?' Sayaka blinked.

'Confidence,' Jean repeated. 'That's your problem. I doubt the Academia duellists are all light years beyond you all. They look like school age kids, for the most part.' He didn't add that they  _were_  school aged kids for the most part, because that would show him knowing more than he should. 'Sure, they'd trained specifically to counter Xyz summoning and Xyz decks… actually, have they ever counted specific archetypes, or just Xyz summoning in general?'

Sayaka shrugged. Her eyes were still moist, but they were moving away from the conversation… in a sense. 'I'm not in the field enough to know. Try asking Allen.'

'I think I will,' Jean decided. 'I don't want to see the classroom short any kids, you know.'

They finish up the dishes in silence, after that, and by the time the last of them have been put away, he's tiptoeing over sleeping bodies and Sayaka is doing the same.

.

Masumi woke up to Yaiba knocking loudly on the door, and by the time she'd washed up and dressed, he was enjoying toast in the kitchen with her father.

'Ready to go?' he licked the crumbs off his fingers.

'I haven't had breakfast yet,' Masumi pointed out, accepting the plate and mug of coffee from her father.

Yaiba stared at her drink. 'Coffee? Seriously.'

'Just because you can't stand the taste –'

They bickered back and forth as she ate. That was familiar, and comfortable, but the sombre mood that descended upon them when it was time to leave was anything but.

Her father gave her a quick and gruff hug. She returned it in kind.

They were great at talking to each other, but not that good at saying goodbye.

But that was fine. She wasn't going to be gone forever. Hopefully not too long. When the world was all straightened out again, she'd be back and she might even have a job at LDS at the end of the day. She'd be going somewhere. Growing up, instead of staying a child forever – because no-one stayed a child forever, and a war descending upon them had sped up the process a bit.

'Time to go,' Yaiba said, when an alarm blared on his phone.

Her father watched them leave silently, nursing another cup of coffee.

'Did you say goodbye?' Masumi asked, when her house was out of view.

'Sure I did,' Yaiba yawned. 'At least fifty times. The perils of having younger siblings that don't quite understand their big bro's off to be a hero.'

'Really,' Masumi said dryly. 'You'd think little kids would be thrilled.'

'Not those two,' Yaiba shrugged. 'They'd rather I held their hands and took them to school each morning, and then to their kendo lessons in the afternoon. Like Mum and Dad aren't up to the job. Seriously.'

'Don't have to worry about any of that.'

'Yep, it's just your Dad and his jewels, huh. He'll be lonely, probably.'

'Probably,' Masumi agreed. 'But a pretty diamond's not going to accomplish anything behind a glass.'

Yaiba snorted. 'You and your jewel metaphors. They do the job though.'

So did the clearance Nishijima had set up for them. They breezed through to the top offices, where Nishijima handed them two final cards. 'The Xyz Dimension has been inputted into this one,' he explained. 'Just activate it and it'll take you there. It'll also serve as a local evacuation point if you need one. If you need to leave the dimension entirely, though… ' He handed them the second cards, appropriately red. 'We've had a lot of issues with this one, since the President's sample was a one-way transfer that also blocked any future attempts at crossing dimensions. But we've finally bypassed that.'

'Meaning, I guess, that the Prez  _doesn't_  have one of these?' Yaiba waved the card.

'He does not, but there are other ways of travelling across Dimensions and I doubt he will find himself trapped in any one place.'

'And if he is, someone can always bust in with these and save him.' Masumi hummed. 'How'd you test these?'

'A certain man's arrogance has given us some room to experiment,' said Akaba Himika, who'd entered the room behind them. 'If we cared to, we could have had a road to the Fusion Dimension years ago, but we chose to reinforce the wall instead. We want a force capable of putting a stop to them, and if we must join forces with the other Dimensions, then so be it.'

'Years,' Masumi frowned. 'You guys knew we'd be invaded and you waited this long?'

'Not invaded, per say,' said Nishijima, cutting across whatever Himika was about to say. 'And the information we had was severely limited. The President felt it was best to introduce the new styles of duelling he'd found – Fusion, Synchro and Xyz – and analyse what remaining data we had and travel to and from dimensions. We had no idea if the invasion would even happen in our generation.'

'Guess that makes sense,' Masumi allowed. 'It'd be a lot harder to fight if we weren't taught the different summoning methods, and they've only been around for three years.' She stared at the brief-case. Put like that, it was hard to believe that was three year's work… and then there was Pendulum summoning, which was a matter of months and they'd only had working prototypes during the Miami Championship…

'Now that that's settled,' Yaiba tossed his kendo stick over one shoulder. 'Guess we're ready. Any last minute info we need to know?'

Thankfully not. All they had to do was put the card with the Xyz coordinates into their Duel Disk, and they were off.

.

The hearts of humans were really quite fragile, Jean marvelled. Everyone in the Resistance was (almost surprisingly) sluggish in the mornings, except the night guards. Even the ones who'd been so sharp the days before, like Allen, looked their age, rubbing sleep from their eyes.

That wasn't so bad, per say, but they weren't quite at the point where they'd make it through a war on their own. They might never need to, all bundled together, but they weren't going to get anywhere hiding behind a stronghold that could be overrun any moment.

Really, it was a miracle they hadn't been discovered already. Unless Edo was just playing with his food before he ate it. After all, it was more entertaining to the Academia students to pick the duellists off one by one when they came out for supplies. Good practice for them, as well, with the least amount of risk. Perfectly efficient when they weren't required to wipe Xyz off the map anymore but rather maintain a level of fear, and the Xyz duellists played right into that.

But some of them worked on their own, phantoms in a ruined home and, from the sounds of things, did a pretty good job by themselves. Of course, if they vanished, no-one would really know… except those who made a name for themselves within Academia's cult. It was a sad way to live, but when allies held other allies back, it was safer. Still, these people relied on numbers more.

They had to learn to make that an advantage instead. 'You go out in set groups, usually?' he double checked.

There were a series of nods. 'Good,' he replied. 'While being versatile can be an advantage, there's no point if you can't use your partner's cards in a way that's advantageous to you both. Part of that is a lack of confidence. But part if is that you're not used to duelling together… or even duelling against each other. And with the number of people here, both of those things are fairly easy to rectify.'

Uneasy faces stared back at him.

'How can you expect to improve if you don't practice?' Jean asked sternly. 'Do you really want your lives to depend on whether you can pull off a team play on the fly? Because I've seen some of you try that, and it's not working too well.'

There were still uneasy faces.

'So I want you to duel against your partners. And tag duels with your partner on both sides. You need to learn everything about your deck, and everything about theirs. You'll find cards that bog you down along the way, and others that work surprisingly well. You'll find the balance of your deck: that core you can't do without. You'll find what strategies work best, and what fourty cards make the deck you can best work with. But you won't be able to work out any of that if you don't duel. Pen and paper and theoretical exercises can only accomplish so much.'

He'd thought about his little speech, knowing how tense they all were. He'd waited for a few days of classes, and a few days after he'd arrived. He'd pointed out other things, things that didn't require them to duel to improve. Hopefully those results and the pacifist front would be enough to prompt them to take this next step.

He really didn't want to go down with a dead resistance. He also didn't want to be in a world without any allies.

He couldn't call them pawns. Not yet. He lacked the technology, now. And that meant more work – but it also meant that, if in the future he did develop that technology, it would be undoing a lot of his groundwork now to implement it.

In essence, he was taking a page of Asuka's book and that irked him… but he couldn't deny it was the best course of action to take with his limited resources.

Perhaps she'd felt the same way… even when she'd had the Academia's prowess at her back. She was always the independent sort. Why the Professor had thought a girl like that would be a good leader… well, who knew what he'd thought. He'd sent two people to Synchro who'd turned the world into a chess match between themselves, but Jean found it hard to believe the Professor hadn't anticipated at least some of that.

But that didn't matter when he was tucked away in the Xyz Dimension, hiding from the students scouring for scraps.

He eyed the students. Nobody had moved. He sighed.  _So it comes to this._  He wasn't a fan of calling out specific people, and he was somewhat regretful he had to call out the one person who'd been so helpful…

Actually, he didn't. Allen and Sayaka may be the only pair he knew by name, but they weren't the only pair he knew. 'You guys with the Ghostrick decks.'

Two boys and a girl flinched.

'Triangle duel,' he ordered. 'Then mix it up with 2 vs. 1 until you've all had a shot in every combination. Then repeat until you're comfortable with your decks.'

And when one group started, the others slowly followed. Or some of them did. After muttered arguments he didn't care to listen to. After all, he wasn't their counsellor or the keeper of their secrets. Sayaka had told him enough of hers for the time being.

One thing at a time. He needed both trust and tough love to strengthen these forces.

He moved amongst them, answering the many "will this really help us?" and offered more constructive critique where he could (and there was a lot of that). 'You used to duel before,' he reminded. 'You had schools for duelling. You'd battle your classmates and it wasn't always a duel that had something on the line. These ones here aren't, either. Nobody stands to lose anything except pride. Do you care about your pride that much?'

They were more complaint then. Pride wasn't worth anyone's life.

But not everyone was duelling. Sayaka wasn't.  _Ah, Allen's not here._  There were a few others as well. They could duel each other. Or they could prepare lunch. A few of them were always on kitchen duty.

Sayaka probably wouldn't go out without Allen anyway, in these circumstances. He didn't need to have been around long to see that.

.

Masumi shut her eyes when their duel disks flashed, but opened them almost immediately after. After all, she was being transported into a dimension crawling with Academia duellists and being blindsighted wasn't on her list of things to do.

Yaiba, likewise, was blinking rapidly as he looked around.

They hadn't landed in the middle of a duel, but they had landed almost right on top of a tap, and there were three duellists in Yellow blazers rushing down to meet them.

'Just our luck,' Yaiba grumbled. 'We get the wrong sort of welcome committee.'

'Might be our luck,' Masumi agreed. 'If anyone from the Xyz dimension wanders past, they'll see us kicking Academia butt.'

'Well put.' Yaiba grinned. 'Especially since we landed near a tap. Maybe it's one of theirs? I mean, wouldn't have Academia spies otherwise.'

'Or they're an effective deterrent, but we'll take care of them either way.'

'Sure will.'

And the Academia soldiers, who couldn't differentiate the pair of them from Xyz members (because why would they suspect interdimensional travellers hoping to kickstart a revolution?), grinned mockingly and activated their duel disks.

Masumi and Yaiba activated their own with hard stares in return.


	4. Chapter 4

Allen felt a little bad for leaving Sayaka, but Jean seemed to be sparking something in her and so Allen reluctantly left the two to it.

Because he’d known Sayaka for years but he very barely managed to get her to accompany him on the occasional supply run, and the one time they’d had to duel…

Well,  _she_  hadn’t done a terrible job. It was Allen who’d tried to help her along and then left himself wide open to attack. And he didn’t think he was wrong, either, but the ear-lashing Jean had given him –

Well, Jean was an outsider, even though he had a point. That made the sting worse. If it was Kaito (or even Shun, even if Shun was from a different branch), it would have been a different matter. And if it had been Sakaki Yushou, it would have been a different sort of different matter.

They’d duelled for fun, before. They hadn’t really thought about efficiency. Hadn’t needed to until they were attacked and their access to everything became severely limited. Fun duels didn’t need one turn kills one could pull off with decent accuracy. Fun duels didn’t need to be able to block every attack under the sun, including the ones one would never think of. Fun duels were thinking outside the box in a way that didn’t necessarily take you to victory. Fun duels, in the end, had wasted too much time and resources and now they felt the sting.

Objectively, he knew that not all fun duels were like that, that there was some efficiency in Sakaki Yushou’s duels as well as the entertainment factor – but that wasn’t easy to pick up and that wasn’t what he’d wound up teaching them all. And then he’d gone and vanished when they needed their teachers (and particularly his escape tricks) the most.

His teeth hurt as he ground them again. But he couldn’t help it. They’d lost a lot of people. A lot of people had straight up abandoned them. Many had tried to leave. Maybe a few had succeeded, before Academia got their barricade down. Now it was impossible, because there were too many Academia duellists and too few of them. It was too easy to be crushed by them, even when they weren’t physically in front of them.

And too hard to miss them. Really, it was an embarrassment if they didn’t see those red, yellow or blue coats from a mile away.

                ‘Now what do we do?’ Tom hissed. They hadn’t been able to get water yesterday, either. They needed some, and soon. But there were three duellists hanging around the tap, all in blue. And the red duellists, the so-called runts of the class, were nothing to laugh at.

Could they duel three obelisks and come out on top? Allen would like to say they could, but he hadn’t been able to duel with Sayaka. He could argue that it was  _because_  of Sayaka, because he was trying to defend her and so left himself right open, but Jean wasn’t wrong about that either. It was no good defending someone else if he just got taken out first.

                ‘Oh oh,’ said Dillon.

They’d been standing around too long, apparently. Obelisk was looking in their direction… Or not. They were turning back now. Talking to someone. Arming their duel disks.

The three Resistance boys exchanged glances, then snuck around to see what was going on.

There were two kids their age, duelling the trio of Obelisks. A girl and a boy, one dressed in some sort of dojo style clothes by the looks of it and with a wooden sword thrown over his shoulder. The girl dressed more plainly, but still practical. Better than Ruri when Shun had dragged her in, anyway. Though one couldn’t be expected to be prepared when the world went crazy. They shouldn’t expect the world to flip on its head to begin with.

At least Ruri was lucky in that Sayaka was the same size. They’d did a lot of adjusting, with the mismatch of people they’d managed to pluck from the chaos. And not just clothes needed adjusting. Food. Beddings. Random items. Decks.

It shouldn’t even bother him that much that Jean was forcing them to look at their decks again. Pretty much nobody’s deck was the same as it had been before Academia attacked. They’d changed them all. Strengthened attacks. Strengthened defence. Forgone the more convoluted strategies. And maybe that had made the deck unbalanced, because they hadn’t ever looked at the fourty-something card deck as a whole. Just whatever combo of cards got the job done the fastest.

Of course, thinking rationally, it was obvious they needed to draw the right cards before they could use them. It was obvious some strategies just wouldn’t work often enough because the cards needed to be drawn in the right order, and getting the wrong ones would just them.

He supposed that meant none of them were thinking rationally.

And what was with the strangers popping up left and right? First it was Jean, and then those two.

At least they were fighting against Obelisk Force. But what the hell was that monster the boy just summoned.

And what in the world was that Field Spell that popped up?

.

Yaiba didn’t waste any time getting his XXX-Saber Gottoms monsters onto the field, and the look on the faces of the Academia duellists was priceless.

The ones in Standard had looked that way too, but they’d caught on after a while. It was still fun, obviously. He loved his Sabers to pieces. But there was something about watching their confidence crumble into confusion, and then terror when they realised the force of the unknown. And XXX-Saber Gottoms was a force.

Though he was disappointed when he managed to knock the first guy flat without pulling out his fancy new Pendulum cards.

Oh, well. He’ll leave that to Masumi.

And the other Obelisk duellists decided she was the weak link and aimed for her. Just because she hadn’t had a term yet. Yaiba couldn’t help but snort at the indignant look on Masumi’s face when she realised that.

At least Akaba Reiji was clever. Or maybe he’d just anticipated that, and figured if Masumi was going to hiss like a cat, she may as well have claws.

Gem-Cutter was a clever creation. Those poor guys barely saw their own giant Fusion monster cut into pieces and dumped on them, all in their own turn. But that was almost too powerful an effect, so he would have thought if he hadn’t read the card’s description before-hand. Special-summoned itself when an opponent special summoned from the Extra deck, and destroyed said monster and dealt effect damage equal to that monster’s attack points… but then during her own turn, she’d have to pay with a random monster from her own extra-deck and her own life-points.

Until she placed Gem-Protector in the other pendulum zone, anyway.

Yaiba grinned. They were going to get away from this with full life points. Not many people had the luxury of saying that.

                ‘Before I use Gem-Cutter and Gem-Protector to pendulum summon, I’ll use their pendulum effects.’

                ‘Cheater,’ the Obelisk duellist leftover snarled.

Masumi scowled back. ‘Not my fault you didn’t do your homework. Just ask your buds in Standard.’

The boy made to say something more, but Yaiba cut him off. ‘I’d let her duel if I were you. She’ll blow a casket otherwise.’

Masumi shot him a glare. He grinned.

Well, whatever worked.

                ‘Gem-Cutter’s effect. Seraphinite is sent to the graveyard and I take 2300 points of damage.’

                ‘Hmmph,’ said the Obelisk duellist. ‘You’re making it easier for me to finish you.’

                ‘Aren’t you a cocky thing?’ Masumi asked, ‘especially with fear clouding your eyes. You know I’m going to crush you.’

                ‘Get on with it,’ the boy snapped, half-caught between arrogance and that same fear.

Masumi got on with it. ‘Gem-Protector’s pendulum effect. I regain life-points equal to one set of effect damage I took this turn. So I regain those 2300 life points. And with that out of the way, I pendulum summon Gem Knights Iolite and Roumaline, and overlay them!’

Her first Xyz summon. Fitting it was in the Xyz dimension, Yaiba thought. Though why wasn’t she using Fusion? It wasn’t like her to shy away from anything, even if the Xyz duellists were like to jump the gun if they spotted her.

                ‘Two distant jewels, overlay and sparkle with a bright new colour! Xyz summon! Gem Knight Pearl!’

                ‘Hmmph,’ said the Obelisk. ‘Weak.’

                ‘Who are you calling weak?’ asked Masumi, ‘when you’ve got nothing defending you? Gem-Knight Pearl may be a normal monster, but I can power her up with this.’

Yaiba laughed again. ‘Good thing you’re not against Sakaki, then.’

The Obelisk just looked confused. ‘A sword that needs magic cards to power it. That’s not going to help much.

                ‘By the way,’ Masumi grinned. ‘This field we’re in now? It’s called an Action Field. And Action Fields are just loaded with magic cards that we can add to our hands whenever we want – so long as it’s one at a time, of course.’ And she was off in a flash, as the Obelisk processed that.

And it was a show of Masumi’s desire to best him, that she found enough of them in a row to power Gem-Knight Pearl all the way up to 4000 before she was automatically timed out of her turn.

Oh well. That was their introduction to duelling in the Xyz Dimension, was it? Pretty lame, all in all. They turned tail and ran. Yaiba and Masumi watched them go.

And watched three other kids creep out when Cross Over faded from the field.

Must be the Resistance. ‘Yo,’ Yaiba raised a hand. ‘Resistance kids?’

                ‘Who are you calling a kid?’ one snapped. ‘Look at your own size.’

                ‘I’m looking.’ Yaiba rolled his eyes. ‘Can’t help it. My entire family’s full of midgets.’

                ‘Really,’ Masumi sighed. ‘That’s your idea of a first impression.’

                ‘Hey, they saw us kick the butts of those Obelisk duellists. That’s as good a first impression as we’re going to make.’

The other three stared at them. ‘Where are you from?’ one asked, eventually.

                ‘Standard Dimension,’ Masumi said immediately… which wasn’t a bad way to go. Clarified they weren’t from Xyz or Fusion, at least.

                ‘But you Xyz summoned,’ said another of the boys.

                ‘We can use all the summoning methods,’ Yaiba replied. ‘Well…’ he amended, after a stunned pause. ‘In theory. I don’t actually have any Fusion monsters, and Masumi doesn’t have Synchro.’

They stared. ‘You… Fusion summon.’

                ‘Did that long before we heard of this war.’ Masumi crossed her hands. ‘And I’ll tell you know. I won’t stand for these Academia duellists respecting Fusion like they have.’

                ‘Came down, kitten,’ Yaiba grinned.

At least her honest passion was plain enough for the others to see. Enough so that they weren’t jumping the gun, anyway.

.

Allen couldn’t help but gape at the pair. From the Standard Dimension… isn’t that were Sakaki Yushou came from? But it didn’t seem like Tom or Dillon were particularly concerned about that fact.

And after the next bit, Allen found himself unconcerned as well. Because the girl could Fusion summon. She  _Fusion_  summoned. And by the sounds of things, it was her main calling card too.

But she wouldn’t stand for Academia’s disrespect, she said. Maybe they were people like that. Or maybe it was a way to make them lower their guard.

Rotten way, though. It would only make them  _raise_  their guards, surely, having someone Fusion summon without remorse. And she admitted it before even showing a Fusion summon –

                ‘Wait a sec,’ he interrupted whatever they were going to say next, ‘why didn’t you Fusion summon in this match?’

                ‘Do you Xyz summon in every match you play?’ the girl, Masumi, asked. ‘I just didn’t draw a Fusion card, that’s all. And in case you weren’t paying attention, Gem Knight Seraphinite is a Fusion monster. She was sent to the grave with Gem Cutter’s effect.’ She stared at him some more, then hummed. ‘No wonder. It’s a wonder you can see your hand in front of your face with eyes as clouded as hers.’

                ‘What she means,’ the other boy said helpfully, ‘is that you’re too distracted by other things. You’ll fight better with a clear mind.’

                ‘And you are?’ Allen asked, instead of acknowledging the explanation.

                ‘Toudou Yaiba,’ the newly identified Yaiba replied. ‘Though it’s rude of you to have not introduced yourself first, you know.’

                ‘Allen,’ Allen grumbled back. ‘And this is Tom and Dillon.’

                ‘Charmed,’ Yaiba replied, smiling and showing the gap between his teeth. ‘Now, we’ve had Academia problems of our own so we’ve brought along some presents, courtesy of them.’

                ‘And if you were paying attention, you might be able to guess what they are,’ Masumi added. ‘Though out in the open isn’t the best place to do this. Got anywhere Academia won’t stick their noses in?’

The three of them glanced at each other. These two from another world were strange. Their duelling was strange (though no doubt effective). Their manner was strange. Even their confidence was strange.

But they sorely needed confidence. And they already had Jean who could turn around and stab them in the back at any time. What was two more duellists. It was doubtful they’d handle that new stage any better than Obelisk did, so it didn’t matter if they were here or there.

Allen sighed. ‘Follow us. And keep an eye out for any tail-gaters.’

.

Jean was surprised to find two new tagalongs. Even more surprised to find they were from Standard… though he was relived, as well. That was the one other safe dimension. Probably safer than Xyz… but that also meant they were less malleable. They’d been prepared for a war. They were managing the battlefront just fine under their current leaders and he would have had no space to slot in to.

Here though, here the front lines were fragile and they needed him. They were duelling themselves into corners and he felt like he was a teacher again, spitting commands and watching them slowly take form. He’d grown impatient of that, eventually, when the Professor wanted results faster than he could do them by hand. He’d wound up shifting his entire focus.

The Professor had been thrilled with his persuasion powers, helped along with technology. And through that, he’d slowly taken over the Synchro Dimension.

But then he’d gotten greedy. He’d separated from the Academia, and he and Asuka had never seen eye to eye. She’d overthrown him, and Synchro was lost to Academia for now either way.

So here he was in Xyz, continuing his rebellion a different way. Because he wasn’t going back with his tail between his legs.

And these duellists, however their lives were at stake, weren’t pushing for results. They needed to be pushed instead.

It was very different.

And now these two from Standard had arrived to throw a wrench into the works. That might be good. Or that might be bad. He’d have to wait and see.

.

Sayaka didn’t know what to make of the new arrivals.

Masumi was nothing like her. Was nothing like Ruri either. Was a thousand times more headstrong, by the looks of things. She declared in front of an entire Resistance cell of Xyz duellists hunted by Academia that she used Fusion as her primary summoning method, and then launched into her fight against Academia and their defacing of that method.

Her point was fair. It wasn’t Fusion summoning that was evil. It was the people using it.

That didn’t make it any easier to palate. Even if it lined up with what Jean had been telling them earlier. And, really, it was a stroke of luck for them. Here was a Fusion expert who claimed to be safe. They could practice with her. Learn from her. They’d have the edge that Fusion had and they lacked. The ground would be a little more even.

And that wasn’t all. Those two from Standard had also brought a present that could tip the tide.

Because Fusion wasn’t the only thing in their arsenal. They had Xyz summoning. The barebones of it anyway. And Synchro. The other kid, Yaiba, was a Synchro expert. And then they both used something called Pendulum summoning, as well.

They’d never heard of Pendulum summoning. And by the look of surprised fascination in Jean’s face, neither had he.

Neither had the Academia duellists, judging from how Tom and Dillon had explained their reactions.

That was an edge  _over_  those Fusion duellists.

And the final surprise came from Dillon’s question. ‘What about that field spell?’

                ‘Cross Over?’ Masumi asked. ‘It’s an Action Field. It’s the mainstay of duelling in our world.’ At the mystified looks, she further explained. ‘Our world uses Solid Vision in duels. This led to new stages being built for duellists to duel on, called Action Fields. And in Action Fields are Action Magic cards, which can be picked up if you find one, but you can only have one in your hand at a time and you don’t know what you’re getting until you pick it up. Some have traps, as well. Physical traps. Or trap cards. And it requires a bit of acrobatics to reach cards… assuming you can find them. But it gives you a wider arsenal of cards… and your opponent, naturally. It’s built into our duel disks, so you’ll only ever see it in Standard or duelling a Lancer like us.’

Which then led to an explanation of the Lancers: the army fighting against Academia.

And Masumi was marching ahead and fighting and she wasn’t afraid of anything. Sayaka almost envied that, but it was her own fault and her own shortcomings that held her back. Masumi and Yaiba split the cards into piles and Jean was there, helping them, asking questions and calling duellists over.

That made sense. He’d spent a week teaching them, by that point. He knew all their decks, and what sort of cards would help. And he knew more about Fusion than any of them did.

Though the pile of Purple cards went untouched. Even if it was a sensible thought, fighting fire with fire. Nobody wanted to do it. Nobody could bear to do it. Maybe that did make them fools, restricting their arsenals. Maybe it also made them fools to learn two new summoning methods to widen their repertoire, when they couldn’t win on their own dimension’s merits.

Which was more important, learning new tricks or mastering what they already had?

Then again, she’d had nine years to master Xyz summoning. And decks weren’t stagnant. They adapted.

Maybe this was all adaption as well. She was sure they wouldn’t be so reluctant if things were different.

And she needed to get stronger. Much stronger. Her deck was a mess of fairies and they didn’t always go together, but she couldn’t help that. She’d lost her original deck in the invasion (because they’d been in swimming class at the time) and these were her spares. Some of them had lost their spares though, like the Spade branch. Shun’s spares. Yuuto’s spares. Their decks were stuck in stagnancy, because they’d left the Resistance stronghold not long after as well. Unless they’d found another source for cards.

But her deck was a mess. If anyone needed to straighten it out, she did. Fairies were good and fine but they weren’t an archetype. Artefacts were an archetype,  _her_  archetype, but she didn’t have spare copies of all of them.

The cards didn’t seem to conform to any particular archetype, for the most part. But there were a few structure decks. Ones she’d never heard of before. Maybe, amongst those, she could find something to make a new, stronger, deck.

                ‘Are there any fairy monsters?’ she asked tentatively.

Masumi glanced at her, then at the piles of cards. ‘Not many,’ she said doubtfully. ‘Pendulum cards, anyway. And for something like the Heralds, you’ll need a scale 1 pendulum card…’

She hadn’t yet grasped the concepts of scales, but still she watched as Masumi flicked through the piles and pulled out whatever fairy monsters she could find. In the end, she had a sizeable stack. Only one Pendulum monster, as she’d said, but it had a useful effect in that it negated the cost of counter traps.

It belonged in a Counter Fairy deck, then. She had a few cards that went with it. Bountiful Artemis. Meltiel, Sage of the Sky. Voltanis the Adjudicator. Synthetic Seraphim. And they had plenty of Counter Traps between them.

It would take some trial and error to balance a deck like that, but it had defensive and offensive capabilities, and there wasn’t much that could stop a Counter deck. It could work. It could very well work. And the ability to Pendulum summon would make Voltanis all the more powerful.

                ‘Don’t just limit yourself to that,’ Yaiba said, joining the conversation. ‘Just because Counter Fairies don’t have any cards in the extra deck, doesn’t mean you can’t throw in a few yourself. Pendulum cards, naturally. But Synchros for example. You could quite easily combine Hyperion with a deck like this, thanks to Layard the Liberator’s effect. Having The Agent of Mystery – Earth or one of the Heralds makes it possible to Synchro summon. Or using The Fountain in the Sky along with Dimensional Alchemist – or any fairies, really, but Dimensional Alchemist is the best one for this – can pump your life points up to the point where a single strike from the agents Mars or Saturn, or Ancient Sacred Wyvern will knock them flat. And any of the Parsaths would let you cover the penetrating damage issue. Or an equip spell like Big Bang Shot or Fairy Meteor Crush.’

Masumi laughed. ‘That’s quite a speech. Who knew you were such a pro on fairy decks.’

                ‘Little sister,’ said Yaiba by way of explanation. ‘Can’t be helped when I’m teaching the twerps to duel.’

                ‘Guess you’re right.’

Sayaka’s head spun as she processed all that. She wasn’t familiar with most of those cards, though she was sure there were copies of Big Bang Shot and Fairy Meteor Crush running around. And she did have Dimensional Alchemist. She just rarely used it, because removing monsters from play at will and then getting them back was tricky business.

But Fountain in the Sky could, as Yaiba explained, make it a very powerful loop. Especially when adding something like The Dark Door in.

She poured over the cards isolated. There were Herald cards in there. And they were another way to shut down decks in their tracks, though Counter traps could still stop them. But they wouldn’t go that great together: Counter Fairies and Heralds. Too many cards. Two conflicting strategies. And the Heralds were dependent on getting the right cards at the right time, too. There were ways to help that along. Tethys, she had. But getting Tethys out required a sacrifice.

This was what Jean meant, she realised. The Herald deck was no doubt powerful, but it would take too long to set up in a setting like this. She’d loose card advantage far too quickly. She wouldn’t be able to get into place very easily. It would work for the tournaments of old. It would be a clever trick like the ones Sakaki Yushou showed. But it wouldn’t hold up here. Not in her hands, anyway. Not with the resources she had at her disposal. She needed more independent cards. Strategies she could implement on a smaller scale. Cards that would better intertwine with each other. Something that wouldn’t come crashing down like a house of cards if she slipped up, or a crack in her defences appeared.

Her hands paused in sorting the pile. Masumi had put some Fusion monsters in there too. Like St Joan. A normal fusion monster, didn’t have any effects to speak of. There wasn’t much point in that one, then. But some of them listed their fusion requirements as simply “two fairy-type monsters” or “two light-type monsters”. They were easy enough to summon out, and they had effects that could help as well. Help more than Fairy Cheer Girl, probably. But they were Fusion monsters.

 _Fusion is not the enemy,_  she repeated to herself.

It didn’t really work.

.

Jean had to admit, those two had brought quite the gift with them. Sadly, it wasn’t taking as well as they hoped. Throwing three new summoning methods at a crowd of scared duellists wasn’t very efficient, and neither was showering them with as many new cards as they had. They were all too new, too confusing.

It made more sense once he sat the pair down and got them to explain the summoning methods in more detail. But Pendulum still confused him. He’d need to duel with them himself to get the hang of it. And that would be the problem with all of them.

He wondered if this would force the issue of practice duels, or if they’d rather reject the cards instead.

Maybe not. From what he’d heard, the two duellists from Standard had given an overwhelming display of power against the three Obelisks they’d duelled. And these were advantages they couldn’t really afford to lose.

                ‘Practice makes perfect,’ he said, clapping his hands. ‘Come on. The more you practice, the more you’ll get the hang of these summoning methods. I’ll keep an eye on the Synchro summons. If you two could cover the rest?’ He said it politely enough, and they agreed.

They didn’t expect he was better versed in Fusion. He hadn’t revealed that deck, yet.

.

Later, Sayaka found Masumi on the stairs, staring at a card.

Not just any card, she realied when she got closer. It was a carded person. Those were coloured slightly differently to the normal duelling cards, and they lacked text as well.

This one had a boy inside it, with shockingly purple hair and an equally shocked expression.

                ‘Hokuto,’ said Masumi by way of explanation. ‘He’s a friend of mine. And Yaiba’s. Our resident Xyz master.’

A comrade, then. Masumi had also lost someone.

Sayaka sat down next to her. ‘Is he why you fight?’

                ‘Not just him. My teacher was carded first. I wanted to find who did it and make them pay. That led to meeting Sakaki, and Hiiragi, and then finally Kurosaki. Though LDS wiped our memories of that because they wanted to keep the war from our doorstep a little longer –‘

                ‘Kurosaki?’ Sayaka repeated. She hadn’t even heard the last part. ‘Kurosaki Ruri? Or Shun?’

                ‘Kurosaki Shun,’ said Masumi, her brow furrowed. ‘Why? Do you know him?’

                ‘Yeah. He’s… a friend.’ That wasn’t quite the truth though, was it? She was Ruri’s friend, yes, but was she Shun? Did Shun even have friends, aside from Yuuto? He’d run off in the dead of night to look for his sister, without a thought to the people he’d left behind. Maybe he didn’t even consider Yuuto a friend. It was Yuuto who’d woken them and said he’d go after Shun and bring him back.

Neither of them made it back, yet.

                ‘A comrade,’ she corrected herself belatedly. ‘Have you seen him, then? Where is he?’

                ‘Synchro Dimension, last I heard,’ Masumi shrugged. ‘He’s in good company. The best duellists Standard has to offer.’

                ‘And Yuuto?’

                ‘Yuuto?’ Her brow furrowed. ‘Where have I heard that name before?’

Sayaka describes him as best he can. But it’s the clothes that tip Masumi off. ‘Oh, the Sakaki lookalike.’

And that was when Sayaka realised she’d said “Sakaki” before as well. ‘Sakaki Yushou?’

                ‘You know the ex-Champion?’ Masumi was surprised. ‘He’s a controversial figure in our dimension, you know. The champion who suddenly disappeared right before the match to defend his title, leaving his wife and eleven year old kid behind. Kid copped it big-time too, from what I heard. People were calling him the son of a coward before he defeated Strong Ishijima. But that caused a lot of controversy as well, because it was the first time Pendulum summoning had been used, and people thought it was either fake or unfair that only he could do it.’

Sayaka touched her deck holder. The pendulum cards in there felt heavy. The lone fairy in the group, as well as some Light support. Pioneered by a kid trying to prove he wasn’t a coward, and trying to prove his dad wasn’t one as well.

But didn’t Sakaki Yushou vanish on them as well, right when they needed him? Wasn’t he a coward, then? ‘When did he disappear?’

                ‘Oh, over three years ago now.’

Three years. When Sakaki Yushou appeared in their world, then.

                ‘He came here.’

                ‘What?’

                ‘Sakaki Yushou,’ Sayaka repeated. ‘He came here, three years ago. Taught at Clover Academy. Encouraged more people to duel. Encouraged people to have fun. But also told us about other dimensions and a war brewing. But it felt so far away, nobody really paid any attention. Until Academia came. And then it was too late. And though Sakaku Yushou had taught us, he didn’t teach us to fight. And he vanished with the first wave.’

                ‘Well…’ said Masumi, after a pause. ‘Good thing Sakaki’s not here to hear that, I guess. Yuuya, I mean.’

                ‘Do you know him?’

                ‘Not really. I’ve just watched him duel a few times. Mixed him up for Yuuto before realising it couldn’t possibly be him.’

Ah, Yuuto. They’d gotten away from the topic a bit there. ‘Where is Yuuto?’

                ‘Lost a duel, I think. Sounded like that, from what Kurosaki said. Said Sakaki was there. Sakaki said he wasn’t.’ Masumi shrugged. ‘Camera footage was fried… unless that was just LDS covering things up again. I guess they wouldn’t want Kurosaki and Sakaki at odds if they’d be working together.’

Sayaka didn’t know what to make of that. Masumi spoke so flippantly, as though the fate of those people didn’t really bother her, like it didn’t matter whether Sakaki was responsible or not. But it did. It mattered a lot. Even if there was nothing she could do from here. ‘Did he?’

                ‘Sakaki? I doubt it. We blamed him for the Sawatari incident and it turned out he was innocent. Besides, they defended each other afterwards. I don’t think Kurosaki would have stood down so fast if Sakaki really did have something to do with it.’

She’d have to trust that. Shun wasn’t there. Neither was Yuuto. All she had was the information Masumi brought with her.

                ‘He was a loner,’ Masumi said suddenly. ‘Kurosaki. Said we didn’t have the experience of fighting wars and not much else. But he went ballistic when Yuuto disappeared.’

Sayaka couldn’t help but smile at that. ‘He does care. And you should have seen him when Ruri – ‘ She stopped. That was no laughing matter.

                ‘Ruri?’

                ‘Kurosaki Ruri. Shun’s little sister. She was kidnapped by Academia.’

                ‘Kidnapped,’ Masumi repeated. ‘Like Hiiragi, then.’ She was frowning now. Whoever Hiiragi was, she meant something to Masumi. ‘Why the hell is Academia turning random people into cards and kidnapping others? Hiiragi wasn’t even a big name. If she’d won the tournament, maybe. But she was one of the top eight and not even in the lead.’

Sayaka didn’t bother asking. The tournament wasn’t important. It was the question. Because Ruri, likewise, wasn’t a well-known figure. Sayaka herself had a better record. But the figure in the cloak had specifically sought Ruri out. Why?

                ‘Are you looking for Hiiragi?’ Sayaka asked, after a moment.

                ‘…not really,’ Masumi said, after a pause. ‘I am waiting for her. Rivals wait. Sakaki’s the one looking for her. They grew up together, from what I’ve heard. Though even that doesn’t stop doubt from creeping in…’

Again, Sayaka was missing part of the context. But again, it didn’t matter. ‘Shun was looking for Ruri. Shun and Yuuto. I’m just…’ Just doing what? She helped at the Resistance. But she barely duelled. ‘I don’t do much, but I want to. I want to get stronger.’

                ‘So do I,’ said Masumi, far more firmly. ‘I wanted to fight, so I fought. And by duelling and learning, I got stronger. And I’ll continue to get stronger.’

Masumi was right. So was Jean. She wasn’t going to get stronger if she didn’t practice.

                ‘Your eyes are a nice colour,’ said Masumi, off-hand.

                ‘Thank you?’ Sayaka was confused, but she took the compliment as it came.

.

‘Duel me,’ said Sayaka.

Allen gaped at her. Sayaka, of all people, wasn’t who he expected to accept Jean’s suggestion for practice duels.

But he accepted anyway, because Sayaka looked so earnest he couldn’t refuse her like that.

He lost, badly. To cards he barely recognised.

                ‘I remade my deck,’ she explained, afterwards. ‘Remember how the other one was mostly my spare cards? I never tried to fix it, and that could have been bad.’

It could have been, but Sayaka rarely went outside, rarely duelled against Academia, so it hadn’t really mattered.

Except it had mattered. Maybe Ruri hadn’t been the only thing playing havoc with Sayaka’s confidence.

                ‘You were one of the best at Clover, you know.’

                ‘Not really.’ Sayaka shrugged. ‘Just one of the best out of the girls. None of us even came close to Kaito. But either way, it’s high time I lived up to that.’

Allen stared at her. ‘You found something.’

                ‘It was coming, I think. I was restless and guilt-ridden both. They’re not a good combination. Better this way, than to do something stupid later down the road.’

Allen couldn’t imagine Sayaka doing anything stupid at all, but he supposed that was beside the point. If Sayaka could imagine it, then it was possible. ‘I’m glad too,’ he admitted. ‘Since you’re sure. But apparently my own butt needs whipping into gear too.’ He was the one who’d lost their practice duel, after all.

                ‘I had several advantages,’ Sayaka pointed out. ‘Namely, the new cards and strategies those two from Standard brought with them.’

That was true. Allen was one of the ones resisting the change. Actually, most of them were resisting, if only because they didn’t quite know what to do. They were moving slowly. Getting used to one summoning method at a time. Dividing and conquering.

Sayaka used two in the one duel, and she hadn’t even participated in the practice matches.

                ‘Masumi helped,’ she said, by way of explanation. ‘And to teach the others, I need to know these myself. Masumi’s not really much of a teacher, though she does alright with one-to-one.’

That was also true. She was too frank, too impatient. But she did alright explaining to Sayaka, apparently, if Sayaka pulled it off.

                ‘Counter Fairy, huh,’ Allen said, changing the topic. ‘You won’t go back to your Artefacts?’

                ‘Artefacts are relics of the past,’ Sayaka explained. ‘They were about holding on. Always about that. I don’t have the cards to make a solid deck out of them anymore, and I always had a bit of Counter Fairy. It’s not that drastic a change.’

                ‘I guess so.’ Though there were a lot of new cards. Honestly, he was amazed she’d found them all. Some were from other Xyz duellists. Some were from the cards Yaiba and Masumi had brought over. But somehow, with all of those, she’d created a pretty solid deck. And she’d used cards they’d taken to be useless or too costly to do it.

Granted, she now had a magic card and a Pendulum monster to mitigate those costs.

                ‘Doesn’t it feel too good to be true?’ Allen asked, after a moment’s silence between them. ‘First Jean with his teaching and his logic and his knowledge. And then these two with their cards and these different summoning methods. I mean, the ones from Standard, they’ve met Shun. They  _know_  what state we’re in.’

                ‘They’re fighting Academia too,’ Sayaka reminded. ‘We can offer them a year’s worth of knowledge on their duelling and their operations. They’re also lacking their Xyz specialists. We can help there. And the more people who can fight, the better for them as well as for us. They want to unite against Fusion.’

                ‘They said that?’ Allen didn’t recall hearing anything of the sort.

                ‘Not in so many words,’ Sayaka smiled. ‘But Masumi, she has a friend’s card, you know.’

A friend’s card. That had more than one meaning, in this world, but Allen knew what Sayaka meant. And what it meant for Masumi to be carrying that.

There was a friend she wanted to turn back to normal badly enough, she’d carried them to another direction.

                ‘This fight’s a lot bigger than us, isn’t it,’ Allen sighed. He’d already known that, but this put it into perspective. ‘I guess we shouldn’t look a horse in the mouth. Even if we’re just being used in the end, so long as we don’t lose anything and come out stronger, it doesn’t really matter.’ He spread out his deck. ‘Help me with mine, won’t you? Then we’ll have a rematch and see if yours can pull out a repeat performance.’

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note #6 – Gem-Cutter is another new card. All her Gem-Knights exist in TCG though.
> 
> Note #7 – Sayaka’s deck has been completely remade. Part of the reason is that her deck and duelling has always struck me as a bit on the messy side (granted, we see only one duel). Little Fairy is pretty versatile, but why discard Dancing Fairies whose already at the right level, when discarding isn't going to benefit her at all? That leaves her short one card. And none of the cards she used conformed to an archetype (though that’s not saying all decks have to conform to an archetype). Just makes it very difficult to work out what else could have been in her deck. Also, there aren’t that many Fairy fusion monsters outside of archetypes. Or Fairy Xyz monsters. Fairies work best in ritual or synchro land. Then for the Archetypes, there’s several that don’t already belong to a main character. My personal favourite is Counter Fairy and it’s pretty versatile, so works well with the Xyz duellists needing multiple efficient ways to deal with whatever’s thrown at them. Herald is also good at blocking effects, but the downside is a) you need to summon out Herald of Perfection or else severely deplete your hand with the double discards of the other Heralds, and b) you need to keep up a steady stream of fairies in your hand to be able to maintain the cost of the Heralds. The other reason I picked Counter Fairies was because the only Pendulum fairy I could find on wikia is a Counter Fairy support card. I’d write what the card’s name is, but I can’t remember off the top of my head and I’m writing this at the placement on the coast with no internet. If I remember, I’ll look it up later. But I’ve still got three weeks to go so I’ll probably forget.
> 
> Note #8 – The scene between Yuugo, Yuuto and Yuuya isn’t the same in canon as in this verse. There’s another fic (or fics) that’ll explain what happened, but that’s why Yuuya didn’t know what had happened to Yuuto. Yuuto wasn’t absorbed into him. And Shun does defend Yuuya canonically. Helps him dodge those Knights. As for Yuuya helping… that one’s arguable. Awakened Yuuya was heading for the ruins, and I prefer the explanation that he was going to fight against Sora since what awakened him was the memories of the Xyz Dimension (aka. Why should that lead to fighting Shun?). He didn’t start attacking allies until the duel with Reiji and Leo Akaba (and even then, the first time was accidental and the second might have been accidental as well; who can say? :D).
> 
> And that’s the end of this in-between of sorts fic! There’ll be more Allen/Sayaka, and Masumi & Sayaka and Roget shenanigans in other fics. And other parts of this world as well. It’s a big world. Exploded on me well before I started the first piece in it.


End file.
